- Key insight: The Financial Services Forum launched American Growth Alliance, a 501(c)(4) that allows banks more opaque donor disclosure than traditional PACs require.
- Expert quote: New Forum CEO Amanda Eversole signals departure from the group's low-profile approach and seeks to foster bipartisan agreement on "an array of important national economic and financial issues and priorities such as job creation and affordability."
- What's at stake: Some of the forum's members include JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs, Citi and Bank of America.
WASHINGTON — The Financial Services Forum has started a 501(c)(4), a spending group, called American Growth Alliance that says it will advocate on economic issues across partisan lines.
Under the tax code, 501(c)(4)s are tax-exempt organizations whose donors do not have to be disclosed, as opposed to Political Action Committees, whose donors must be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.
American Growth Alliance said that current members of the Financial Services Forum — including Bank of America, BNY, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo — are supporters of the new advocacy group. The forum's board of directors is chaired by Citi CEO Jane Fraser.
The crypto industry has used 501(c)(4)s to
But this move represents a more aggressive lobbying posture for the banking industry. Kevin Fromer, who led Financial Services Forum for years after the 2008 financial crisis, helped the nation's largest banks keep a low profile and work behind the scenes on core issues like bank capital and liquidity, rather than applying brute lobbying force to counter nascent threats from fintech and crypto competitors.
But with Fromer's
"American families and businesses are strongest when they are supported by a stable economy — where hard work is rewarded, opportunity is strengthened, and small and large businesses can thrive," Eversole said in a statement. "The American Growth Alliance represents a new initiative that will raise greater awareness of an array of important national economic and financial issues and priorities such as job creation and affordability. Moreover, the AGA will have a bipartisan agenda, supporting leaders who advance the commonsense financial and economic policies that benefit all Americans."
