Release Date: July 21, 2017
Contact: Carol Danko,
202-962-7390, [email protected]
SIFMA
Submits Comments to SEC on Standards of Conduct for Financial Professionals
Washington, DC, July 21, 2017 – SIFMA
today submitted comments to the SEC in response to Chairman Clayton’s recent
request for public comment on the standards of conduct for investment advisers
and broker-dealers.
“SIFMA has long supported the establishment of a best interest standard
of conduct for brokers when making recommendations about securities to retail
customers,” said Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., SIFMA president and CEO. “As the primary regulator, the SEC should
take the lead and work with FINRA to develop a heightened standard that builds
upon the existing broker-dealer regulatory regime, and encompasses a duty of
loyalty, a duty of care and enhanced up-front disclosures. The SEC has always been the appropriate
regulator to address this, for all retail brokerage accounts, something SIFMA
and several Congresses have long supported. We look forward to working with the
SEC on a solution that promotes investor protection and restores product choice
and access to advice for America’s retirement savers without raising costs.”
SIFMA’s letter comments on the feasibility
of the four regulatory options currently being evaluated by the SEC: 1) maintaining the existing regulatory
structure, 2) requiring enhanced disclosures to mitigate investor confusion, 3)
developing a best interest standard for broker-dealers, and 4) developing a
uniform standard of conduct for BDs and investment advisers when providing
personalized investment advice to retail investors.
SIFMA’s letter emphasizes our strong
support for coordination between the SEC and the Department of Labor (DOL), and
the unique opportunity it presents to craft a single, consistent long-term
solution for all retail investors.
SIFMA also asks the SEC to join us in
urging the DOL to extend the January 1, 2018 applicability date of the
provisions in the DOL’s Best Interest Contract Exemption and Principal
Transactions Exemption that are not now in effect.
The full letter can be read here: http://www.sifma.org/issues/item.aspx?id=8589968054.
-30-
SIFMA is the voice of the U.S.
securities industry. We represent the broker-dealers, banks and asset managers
whose nearly 1 million employees provide access to the capital markets, raising
over $2.5 trillion for businesses and municipalities in the U.S., serving
clients with over $20 trillion in assets and managing more than $67 trillion in
assets for individual and institutional clients including mutual funds and
retirement plans. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S.
regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more
information, visit http://www.sifma.org.