A NO on H.R. 2374 is a Vote to Protect Main Street from Wall Street

 

“The House is voting to stop the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from passing fiduciary duty rules to protect investors from Wall Street predators. These common sense rules would require brokers and financial advisors to act in the best interests of investors, retirees and pensioners. A vote for this bill will enable brokers to continue maximizing their own incomes at their clients’ expense. The fiduciary duty rules will end this outrageous conflict of interest,” said Dennis Kelleher, President of Better Markets, Inc., an independent nonprofit organization that promotes the public interest in the financial markets.

 

“The bill is misleadingly labeled ‘The Retail Investor Protection Act.’ The only things this bill will protect are the bonuses of brokers and financial advisors, which come at the expense of their customers. If this bill really protected investors, it would require a fiduciary duty to act in the clients’ best interest,” Mr. Kelleher said.

 

“The most indefensible justification for the bill is that brokers won’t provide financial advice to retail investors if they have to be fiduciaries acting in their clients’ best interests. What they’re really saying is that if they cannot put their own interests over their clients and exploit investors for their own profit, then they won’t do business with them. This bill should be rejected so that the Department of Labor and the SEC can pass fiduciary duty rules and stop this exploitation,” concluded Mr. Kelleher.

 

###

 

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.