Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement on the announcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) final rule governing the standards of care owed by broker-dealers when providing retail investors with personalized investment recommendations:

“The SEC’s final rule ignores the explicit will of Congress and fails to require all financial professionals to abide by a strong, uniform fiduciary standard of care when providing investors with investment advice.

“Hardworking Americans have lost out on millions of dollars that could have been used to save for their children’s education, purchase a home, or save for retirement due to unscrupulous financial advisers who have put their interests and profit motives ahead of their retail clients.

“Today’s announced rule will only protect this conflicted behavior to the detriment of mom and pop investors.

“What’s more, this rule could lower the standard that investment advisers currently abide by and mislead investors into thinking that brokers who comply with this new rule are putting their clients’ interests first.

“Instead of providing protections to ensure workers and families are not ripped off when investing their hard-earned savings, this rule will only create confusion. I urge the SEC to rescind this rule and put the interests of savers and retirees first.”

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