This article first appeared on InvestmentAdvisor.com on March 22.
The Senate Banking Committee approved March 22 the financial services overhaul bill by a vote of 13-10 (13 Democrats and 10 Republicans). An expected week-long mark-up schedule was cut short when Republican committee members decided over the weekend against submitting any amendments to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s bill.
Senator Herb Kohl’s (D-Wisconsin) amendment to the financial services reform bill that would create an independent oversight board to regulate financial planners was not introduced as a separate amendment during mark-up of the bill today, March 22. Rather, a manager’s amendment to the bill included a provision calling for a GAO study of the issue.
After the bill passed, Kohl–who’s chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging–released a statement thanking Dodd for including the GAO study provision, adding that in the Aging Committee, he has “looked at the use of certain financial advisor designations and the impact on elderly consumers. This study would not only help expose any gaps in state and federal regulations, but also look at the use of other designations that are being used to take advantage of consumers.”