Rep. Waters Nominated to Chair House Financial Services Committee
Waters said she'd “continue to prioritize protecting consumers and investors from abusive financial practices."
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was nominated late Monday to serve as chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.
After being nominated by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee to chair the committee in the 116th Congress, Waters stated that she was “committed to creating opportunities, ensuring fairness and protecting the economic well-being of all Americans.”
As chairwoman, Waters said, she’d “continue to prioritize protecting consumers and investors from abusive financial practices, ensuring strong safeguards are in place to prevent another financial crisis, expanding and supporting affordable housing opportunities, encouraging responsible innovation in financial technology, promoting diversity and inclusion in the financial services sector and ensuring that hardworking Americans and small businesses have fair access to the financial system and opportunities to thrive.”
Waters, who has already directed committee staffers to sketch out new subcommittees, also vowed to ensure that the Trump administration doesn’t dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“This critical agency must be allowed to resume its work of protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive or abusive practices without interference from the Trump administration,” she said.
The House Financial Services Committee also oversees the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Industry officials see Waters taking SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to task over the agency’s advice standards package — which could become finalized in the first quarter — as she was one of 35 House and Senate Democrats who signed a letter to Clayton complaining that the SEC did not follow the Dodd-Frank mandate to establish a uniform fiduciary standard for advisors and brokers.
Waters also stated that she would continue an “open door policy in order to hear the perspectives of all stakeholders, including representatives of the financial services industry as well as advocates for consumers and investors.”
Democratic Steering and Policy Committee nominations are subject to the approval of the Democratic caucus.
— Check out SIFMA Sees Slowing Growth, SEC Best-Interest Rules Coming in 2019 on ThinkAdvisor.