The Financial Services Roundtable called for the death of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule Friday and said it wants the Securities and Exchange Commission to lead the way in the establishment of a uniform and less onerous standard of care for investment advisors and broker-dealers.
The Roundtable represents the largest financial institutions in the nation. Ameriprise Financial, BlackRock, Edward Jones, LPL Financial, Raymond James and Wells Fargo are among its 84 members.
In releasing its 2017 agenda, the trade group also said it would seek expanding access to retirement savings for all by simplifying regulations that discourage small businesses from offering retirement savings plans to their employees, though the group didn’t give specifics.
The group cautioned that the movement for tax reform by Congress and the White House could wrongly cut incentives for retirement and other savings goals.
Instead, the Roundtable said the tax code should be used to incentivize savings.
On another issue, the group said it supports targeted legislative and regulatory efforts designed to protect consumers, particularly older Americans, from losing their accumulated savings to financial fraud.
Looking at cybersecurity, it warned that several breaches at regulatory agencies heighten the concern that more requirements to share sensitive information with regulators may expose financial firms to additional risk and liability.
The group is also calling for a merger and standardization of cybersecurity rules by the financial regulators.
“The ever-expanding number of cybersecurity requirements for financial services firms, which often overlap and even conflict with each other, pose a security and operational risk,” the trade association said.