“Having dared to suggest hedge funds and other asset managers deserve a close look by regulators, the Financial Stability Oversight Council Wednesday afternoon holds a rare public meeting to approve its annual report.
“FSOC’s enemies are waiting to pounce one more time, if the annual report again asserts that some of the biggest asset managers like Fidelity and Blackrock might be potential risks to the financial system.
“Having provoked still another instance of a phenomenon peculiar to Washington, the public-issue money avalanche, the Council is facing an onslaught of criticism that now extends to the back bench of the SEC, a member agency.
“The issue of risks potentially posed by asset management firms was raised in a research report last September, triggering a massive reaction from lobbyists and their henchmen, the paid opinion piece writer, as well as from conservative groups and their constituency, Republican members of the House of Representatives.
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“In the context of the Republican House consensus that all of the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the FSOC, should be altered or eliminated, their focus on FSOC is to be expected.
“However even some friends of Dodd-Frank, like the Better Markets organization dedicated to seeing it enforced, has criticized FSOC for making the council’s job harder than it has to be by holding mostly closed-to-the-public meetings and by expending virtually no council energy on explaining or defending itself. As MNI has reported, the group maintains the secrecy and inaccessibility was not the mode of operation intended by members of Congress who voted for Dodd-Frank.”
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Read full MNI Deutsche Borse article here
