The Securities Industry Association says financial services companies really do need extra time to comply with new federal financial planning and discretionary brokerage rules.[@@]
The SEC wants to apply Investment Advisers Act consumer protection rules to broker-dealer organizations that are providing financial planning services or true discretionary brokerage services.
The SIA, Washington, has asked the SEC to push the effective data of the new regulations to April 1, 2006, from Oct. 24.
A coalition of consumer groups led by the Consumer Federation of America, Washington, has written to the SEC to protest the request for a delay in enforcement of the new regulations, arguing that delays deprive investors of disclosures that might have alerted them to brokers’ potential conflicts of interest.
Now the SIA has sent the SEC a second comment letter, to respond to the consumer groups’ attack on the request for an extension.
An extension is necessary for firms to assess and comply with the new rules, SIA General Counsel Ira Hammerman writes in the letter, which is addressed to SEC Secretary Jonathan Katz.