SIFMA's Ryan: Financial Industry, Regulators Face 'Unprecedented Task' Under Dodd-Frank

While SIFMA is focused on seven primary areas under Dodd-Frank—systemic risk, the Volcker rule, resolution authority, derivatives, securitization and credit ratings agencies, capital and liquidity, and a fiduciary standard of care for brokers—other key issues for SIFMA are reforming the GSEs and taxes. Ryan noted that six out of the seven areas in Dodd-Frank that SIFMA is focusing on “have a global, or at least EU, equivalent.”

Ryan said that SIFMA supports creating a “federal fiduciary standard that would apply—uniformly—to all investment advisors and brokers” providing investment advice to retail investors, a rulemaking that he called a "domestic issue." But “making sure the standard is written in a way that preserves investor choice of the products and services that best fit individual investment needs” will be tough, he said.

Ryan noted in comments after his speech that a fiduciary standard for brokers will likely be a “modified ’40 Act standard” that incorporates additional disclosures. But, he said, it will be “disclosure that’s understood.”

Another issue of high importance, Ryan said, is taxes. If Congress doesn’t act by year-end, he said, capital gains and dividend tax rates will increase by 33% and 164%, respectfully, on January 1, 2011. Congress “must provide certainty,” he said, “by extending the current 15% rates on capital gains and dividends before the end of the year.”

Read about Treasury deputy Wolin's next steps on Dodd-Frank at AdvisorOne.com.