Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. (Photo via Senate Banking Committee)
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, took Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to task Tuesday, saying he advanced "one bad rule after another" during his tenure at the agency, including Regulation Best Interest.
During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on SEC oversight, Brown, the ranking member on the committee, told Clayton that Reg BI "doesn't put mom-and-pop customers first."
Brown pointed to comments Clayton made during a recent SEC roundtable focusing on the SEC's initial review of Reg BI and the Customer Relationship Summary, or Form CRS, that firms are "meeting their obligations" regarding the rules.
"Even though you said firms are making 'good-faith efforts,' your staff reported shortcomings in compliance and failures to fully disclose disciplinary history to clients," Brown stated. "In fact, it doesn't seem like you have any way to tell if this rule will help at all. Not a very auspicious beginning."
In his prepared testimony, Clayton stated that Reg BI and Form CRS "raise the bar, in terms of both legal requirements and mandated disclosures, for firms serving retail investors, while preserving access (in terms of both choice and cost) to a variety of investment services and products."
Clayton said he believed "preserving choice, with added protections and transparency, has proven to be particularly important as market conditions, investment options and investor preferences have changed, including as a result of our historically low interest rate environment where recurring fees can erode or even eliminate the yields on fixed income instruments."
Brown also noted that he shared recent concerns raised by the North American Securities Administrators Association regarding the agency's plan to order a new federal broker-dealer exemption for private placement finders.
