Pennsylvania + Wall

 By Randy Snook and Ken Bentsen 

 It’s been a busy week for our advocacy team here at SIFMA. This past week, SIFMA and representatives of our member firms testified (or submitted testimony) to the Internal Revenue Service, the California State Legislature, and Congress.

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By Tim Ryan

 Appearing today in the Letter to the Editor, SIFMA President & CEO Tim Ryan responded to Cass Sunstein’s May 1 Op-Ed: "The White House vs. Red Tape" 

To the Editor:

Cass Sunstein trumpets the Obama administration's efforts to harmonize U.S. and foreign regulations but offers no justification or even mention of the fact that the president's new executive order blatantly exempts one business sector that employs millions of Americans: financial services..... Read more...

Do you own stock in a public company? As a shareholder, you have certain rights and responsibilities to provide direction to senior management and board members of companies as they chart a path for future growth and investment. Making your voice heard by companies is part of what is known as the proxy voting system..... Read more...

By Ira Hammerman

SIFMA has long supported a uniform fiduciary standard for brokers and investment advisors who provide personalized investment advice to individual retail customers.  We’ve testified to that fact, provided comment letters and studies, and offered up a framework as to how a uniform fiduciary duty can be written. Yet, InvestmentNews ran an excerpted blog post today from an analyst that not only distorts our position; it misrepresents key facts in this debate.  .... Read more...

By Tom Price and David Strongin

Today, SIFMA held a seminar on the legal entity identifier (LEI) initiative in coordination with our global affiliate, GFMA. The development of a uniform, globally consistent LEI framework is critically important for improving systemic risk management across the global financial industry. As such, helping to move this initiative forward is one of our top priorities. .... Read more...

By Tim Ryan

 Appearing today on the New York Times website, SIFMA President & CEO Tim Ryan responded to the February 27 editorial "Not What Paul Volcker Had in Mind."

To the Editor:

Your Feb. 28 editorial “Not What Paul Volcker Had in Mind” raises concerns about industry comments about the Volcker rule, a provision of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, but disregards the damaging effects this rule could have on markets.
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By Lisa Bleier

Today, SIFMA along with IRI and FSR responded to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) request about what information we trades and our member firms could provide as part of the Department’s “expanded” regulatory impact analysis of their proposed change to the definition of a fiduciary under ERISA, which impacts 401(k) plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).  

The bottom line of our letter: we continue to work with our member firms on identifying information we can provide to the DOL, but many questions remain, especially just how the Department will use this information.  .... Read more...