The SEC is once again wading into the long-running fiduciary standard debate.
 
And already, the agency is getting criticism.
 
On Thursday, SEC chairman Jay Clayton asked for public comment about how the SEC might coordinate with the DOL on its fiduciary rule.
 
Clayton’s request “looks like a ploy to give the DOL an excuse for indefinitely delaying the January 2018 implementation date while the two agencies work on a watered-down, best-interest standard,” said Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America.
 
The statement from the SEC chairman rehashes the same questions the agency has been studying for more than a decade, Roper said, which shows that the SEC is not really moving forward with a “serious response” to the DOL.
 
Clayton offered no deadline for comments, she added, and “there’s no proposal on the table.”
 
The statement from Clayton was not a formal request for comment or a concept release, which the agency occasionally uses to solicit feedback prior to rule-making.
 
Instead, the SEC provided a webform and e-mail box for public comment on a range of questions, “in advance of any future Commission action,” Clayton said.
 
The Financial Services Institute (FSI) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma) applauded Clayton’s inquiry.
 
The trade groups want a single SEC-defined standard of care to cover all types of accounts. They have been fighting the DOL rule, which applies only to retirement plans.
 
“We welcome SEC Chairman Clayton’s engagement on the issue and look forward to working with him on the creation of a best interest standard that protects all retail investors,” said Kenneth Bentsen, Sifma chief executive, in a statement.
 
“FSI has long advocated for a uniform fiduciary standard from the SEC, and Chairman Clayton’s request for comment is a promising step,” said Dale Brown, chief executive of the FSI.
 
“Developing a thoughtful, uniform standard will take time,” Brown added in a statement. “We strongly encourage Chairman Clayton and his team at the SEC to coordinate with the Department of Labor to ensure [a] true uniform fiduciary standard.”
 
The industry wants an SEC standard built around disclosures of conflicts, with weaker conduct requirements than the DOL’s, Roper said.
 
Department of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and other statements from the Trump administration “signal that they are planning to water down the rule,” Roper said. “So we’ll probably get the two agencies working together” to weaken it.
 
How it all shakes out in the end, “we really don’t know,” she said.