Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement in response to FINRA CEO Richard Ketchum’s comments today on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) best interests rule:

“Making the retirement crisis much worse than it has to be, more than $17 billion every year end up in Wall Street’s pockets rather than in Americans’ retirement accounts due to brokers’ conflicts of interest. The proposed Department of Labor fiduciary duty rule would stop that by requiring anyone giving retirement investment advice to act in their clients’ best interests. It is revealing, but not surprising, that the head of Wall Street’s self-regulator (FINRA) would be against requiring Wall Street’s brokers to act in their clients’ best interest rather than in the brokers’ own economic interests. It is also not surprising that he wants Americans to blindly trust Wall Street brokers to do the right thing, but there are $17 billion reasons that prove that hasn’t worked and won’t work.  Hardworking Americans deserve to get retirement advice that maximizes their savings rather than brokers’ income.” 

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Better Markets is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes the public interest in financial reform in the domestic and global capital and commodity markets. Better Markets advocates for transparency, oversight and accountability with the goal of a stronger, safer financial system that is less prone to crisis and failure thereby eliminating or minimizing the need for more taxpayer funded bailouts. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.com.