House committee unanimously approves adviser bill on senior fraud

The House Financial Services Committee unanimously approved legislation Thursday designed to thwart financial exploitation of seniors by protecting financial institutions from liability when reporting such fraud.
The Senior Safe Act aims to add flexibility to current laws so that those in financial services can report suspected financial abuse of seniors to authorities without fear of running afoul of privacy laws.
By providing protection from liability for employees who have received training to identify and deal with the issue, the bi-partisan legislation aims to help individuals and institutions best spot financial exploitation and then have the leeway to report it.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., attracted heavy praise from all committee members and offered a rare glimpse of agreement between the political parties in Washington, indicating better chances for the measure moving forward.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., commented on this unity and said the bill “strikes that balance between the privacy of the people involved but the need to make sure that if there is some type of abuse going on the law enforcement at the local and state level can find out about it.”
Industry groups applauded the committee’s bill to help seniors fight financial abuse while protecting financial firms against any legal ramifications.
“This type of legislation, paired with collaboration within the industry and beyond, allows us to tackle elder financial abuse head-on to better protect the investments of aging Americans,” the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association wrote in a statement.
This display of bi-partisanship did not extend to other adviser bills discussed in the committee markup.
The Investment Advisers Modernization Act of 2016 and the Securities Exchange Commission Regulatory Accountability Act were met with opposition, but were approved by the committee nonetheless.
The former was approved 47-12, while the latter gathered more disapproval from Democrats and passed 34-25.
The SEC Regulatory Accountability Act, sponsored by Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., directs the SEC to conduct detailed cost-benefit analyses when implementing new rules. The bill also requires the SEC to assess the impact of its new and existing regulations.
In opposition to the bill, ranking member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said its intent was to increase ways in which firms can sue the SEC if they don’t get a bill they want passed.
“It is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to tie-up SEC’s moderate resources,” Ms. Waters said.