SEC: "We hear you"

The Financial Services Institute (FSI), the advocacy group for independent broker/dealers that has been vocal about the impracticality of Reg S-P as it currently stands, e-mailed FSI members and journalists regarding the proposal. In a memo to FSI’s General Counsel, David Bellaire, law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP stated that “a firm relying on the exception would obtain from the departing representative a written record of the information to be disclosed,” changing how, for all practical purposes, many reps or investment advisors “likely remember the basic contact information for their clients, or have it in their personal records” and says the SEC acknowledges that “while some firms discourage departing representatives from soliciting clients to move their accounts to another firm, others do not.” The amendment could, according to the Sutherland memo, “provide an orderly framework for a supervised transfer of basic customer information.” The SEC will accept comments for 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. FSI says it’s carefully reviewing the proposal.