House Financial Service Committee Chair Job Hensarling (R-Texas) said Tuesday that if the Financial Stability Oversight Council designates a mutual fund company or other asset manager as “systemically important,” it could lower the returns retirement and college savers receive from the fund.
At a committee hearing on the financial regulator consortium, FSOC’s only insurance representative, former American Council of Life Insurers President Roy Woodall, cautioned that the designation for insurers could also cost policyholders money.
But neither Hensarling nor Woodall nor their aides would say if the increased regulatory compliance and expected capital buffer expenses would cost investors a little or a lot.
Woodall was the only member of FSOC to vote against putting the systemic label on MetLife a year ago.
The insurer is challenging the designation in court.
FSOC staff is developing a report on possible systemic risk in the asset management industry, including its largest players.
However, the council has not said if it will label any of those companies as systemically important and has not pointed to any as targets for the designation.
At the hearing, where FSOC drew universal scorn from committee Republicans, the lead Democrat, Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, said the council can take some credit for 69 consecutive months of job growth.
Waters also praised FSOC for making money market funds less susceptible to runs by pressuring the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the industry more tightly.
SEC Chair Mary Jo White said FSOC should not be telling companies how to run or structure their business.