SEC Fiduciary Rule to Include ‘Deep Economic Analysis’: Chief White

While the Securities and Exchange Commission’s uniform fiduciary proposal for brokers and advisors will include a “very deep economic analysis” to judge the rule’s impact on retail investors, the agency’s chairwoman, Mary Jo White, told House lawmakers Wednesday that she still couldn’t nail down a specific time for the fiduciary plan’s release.

However, the agency does plan to release within the next few months an “updated” accredited investor definition, White told members of the House Financial Services Committee during a hearing to assess the agency’s agenda.

Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, probed White on whether the SEC has performed an “updated” economic analysis on the rule since the agency’s staff studied the issue in 2011.

Part of the fiduciary rulemaking “will be very deep economic analysis to judge impacts and all relevant baselines,” White said. “There will be economic analysis completed before there’s any proposal. There’s always economic analysis, as there should be, before you proceed with any adoption.”

Hensarling questioned White as to whether the economic analysis will be available to his committee as well as to the public before the rule is proposed. Unless the agency’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis issues a paper on the topic, White responded, such information is “part of the proposal and made public” then.

“We would encourage you to do that,” Hensarling responded, suggesting that DERA issue such an analysis before a proposed rule.