The Investment Company Institute and Credit Union National Association both came out in support of the House Financial Services Committee’s recent approval of the Financial Choice Act.
The Creating Hope and Opportunity for American Investors, Consumers, and Entrepreneurs (CHOICE) Act of 2017, sponsored by committee chair U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), seeks to ease some of the Dodd-Frank Act’s regulations.
“We applaud committee passage of the Financial CHOICE Act, and support Chairman Hensarling’s goal of enhancing investment and economic growth by eliminating inappropriate and overly burdensome regulation impacting our capital markets. This timely bill would address flawed aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act that are not fulfilling Congress’s original intent and ultimately threaten, rather than protect, investors, the financial sector, and the economy,” ICI President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens said.
Specifically, ICI supports the provision that would remove the power of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to designate non-bank SIFIs and of the Federal Reserve to regulate them.
“We have long contended—in numerous comment letters to regulators both domestic and around the world—that registered funds do not present a threat to US financial stability,” Stevens said. “Other, much-needed provisions in the bill bring Sunshine Act transparency to the FSOC’s processes and diversify the participants in the Council’s deliberations, by including members of the represented agencies and not just the agencies’ heads.”
CUNA praised the proposed change of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Consumer Law Enforcement Agency.
“During the markup, several committee members specifically cited the negative effects that overly broad rules stemming from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have had on credit unions and their members, so our message is getting out there. We’ll need our leagues, credit unions, members and other stakeholders to remain on the advocacy offensive to keep this momentum going to ensure that is not more difficult to obtain safe and affordable products from credit unions,” CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle said.
Many of regulatory relief provisions found in the legislation are primary objectives of CUNA’s Campaign for Common-Sense Regulation.