So who is policing the money fund industry? It may not be the SEC's commissioners, like you think.

Republican House members Darrell Issa and Jim Jordan are seeking more records regarding the cooperation between former SEC chair Mary Schapiro and the Financial Stability Oversight Council during the money fund reform debates. Their concern is that the FSOC is compromising the SEC's independence.

Bloomberg's Dave Michaels broke the news.

Robert E. Plaze, the former SEC staffer who oversaw the proposal of the money fund reforms under Schapiro and who is now a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, tells Michaels that the conflict is a result of Congress' Dodd-Frank reforms.

Everything you see going on, the dynamics and the correspondence, was set up by Congress in Dodd-Frank ... One can argue that Dodd-Frank compromised the SEC’s independence, but if so, this is a product of that.

The FSOC has ten voting members, including the heads of the Treasury, Fed, the OCC, the CFPD, SEC, FDIC, CFTC, FHFA and the NCUAB, and a tenth independent member.

Issa's House Government Oversight and Reform Committee is seeking records from five of the FSOC members, according to the report. His committee sent letters requesting information about last year's money fund reform debate to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg, National Credit Union Administration Chairman Debbie Matz and SEC Chairman Mary Jo White.

Issa and Jordan made the request after the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee obtained some documents showing evidence of interference. Michaels reports that the "records show" that Shapiro and her aides worked with the FSOC officials "to build support for and write a money-market mutual funds rule before other SEC commissioners had seen the proposal."

In his letter, Issa and Jordan wrote that:

The committee is concerned that the council may be structured and operating in a manner that vitiates the independence and core competence of the council’s constituent regulatory bodies.

The Congressmen have set a July 21 deadline for the records to be delivered.

For his part, Plaze told Michaels that Issa’s probe may cause FSOC members to be less willing to share their thoughts concerning threats to the financial system.

To read more, click here.  

Edited by: Casey Quinlan


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE