On May 1, 2015, Richard Ketchum, Chairman and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), reaffirmed his support for a uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Chairman Ketchum emphasized that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) – and not the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) – is best suited to establish and implement a new industry-wide standard of care.

Chairman Ketchum’s comments come less than three weeks after the DOL issued its highly anticipated, re-proposed regulation addressing when a person providing certain types of retirement investment advice is considered a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”). At present, broker-dealer recommendations typically must be based on a reasonable determination that the investment is suitable in light of the investor’s financial situation and investment objectives. Under the proposed rule, broker-dealers providing retirement investment advice would be held to a higher (fiduciary) standard – they would be required to act in the best interest of their client.