In the wake of the decision by the Financial Stability Oversight Committee on Wednesday to remove insurance giant Prudential Financial's systemically important status, the Investment Company Institute is pressing for Congress to approve bipartisan legislation to reform the federal process for assessing risk to the financial system.
ICI supports two pieces of legislation to reform FSOC. The Financial Stability Oversight Council Improvement Act of 2017, H.R. 4061, which is now before the Senate Banking Committee. The bill passed the House by a 297 to 121 vote in April.
New legislation, S. 3577, was also introduced on Oct. 11 by Senate Banking Committee member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., that includes language on FSOC reform.
Although H.R. 4061 has been lingering at the Senate Banking Committee for months, "there are no plans at this time" to take it up, a spokeswoman for the Senate Banking Committee told ThinkAdvisor on Thursday.
S. 3577 stipulates that the FSOC cannot vote on a designation unless the Council first determines that measures from the primary regulator are "impracticable or insufficient to mitigate the threat" that the company could pose to the U.S.'s financial stability.
H.R. 4061, meanwhile, would require FSOC to undertake certain procedures for initial evaluations of companies and allow for a defined system of redress.