Washington
Providers of retirement products will be exempt from oversight by the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) under a revision to the bill offered by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
But officials of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors said that while they welcomed the decision, which "pares back" the legislation, they cautioned that the devil is in the details.
Tom Currey, president of NAIFA, also voiced concern that the proposed legislation still contains provisions that would regulate all credit-related products, including those provided by insurers and agents.
"How the next iteration of the CFPA language deals with credit-related insurance products in the actual legislative proposal is of concern to NAIFA," Currey said.
"The initial Financial Services Committee draft language took a very broad approach to credit-related products including insurance that could, essentially, eliminate the 'credit-related' limitation on the powers of the new agency. We shall see," Currey said.
Frank proposed the changes at a hearing on financial regulatory reform at which Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified and in a memo he circulated to interested parties.
