The Investment Adviser Association (IAA) today threw its “strong support” behind a bill that will require financial institutions and registered investment advisors with more than 100 employees to report their diversity and inclusion data to the government for the first time.
The “Diversity and Inclusion Data Accountability and Transparency Act” is scheduled to be marked up tomorrow by the House Financial Services Committee. The bill would amend the Dodd-Frank Act to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) and other regulators to oversee the enforcement of the enforcement diversity survey requirement.
The investment advisor community “must address the issues that have resulted in lack of diversity and must make meaningful progress towards change,” Investment Adviser Association President and CEO Karen Barr said in a letter today to Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and ranking member Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that urged them to support the legislation.
Of 1,367 advisory firms surveyed by the OMWI in 2018, only 69 firms responded—a 0.05% response rate, Barr said.
“The IAA recognizes that the investment adviser profession has a long way to go in matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our community must address the issues that have resulted in lack of diversity and must make meaningful progress towards change,” she said.
The bill will give the industry and regulators “the ability to measure progress which is critically important,” Barr said in her letter, adding that the IAA “is committed to working collectively with its members and with policymakers to seek to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion as a value for our industry and to providing education, information, and resources to help foster significant progress.”