The North American Securities Administrators Association unveiled its U.S. legislative agenda Wednesday, which was highlighted by a call to impose a fiduciary duty on everyone providing investment advice.

The group of state and provincial securities regulators called upon the U.S. Congress to support implementation of regulatory reform, strengthen state-federal collaboration, and impose a fiduciary duty on all financial professionals when providing investment advice about securities, among other things.

Following completion of a study of the fiduciary duty issue by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, NASAA recommends that the SEC use its authority to establish rules to address the standards of care for broker-dealers and investment advisors. “Applying the fiduciary standard to broker-dealers is necessary to protect investors from abuses fostered by current fragmented industry standards,” it says. “The time has come to end this confusion and close the longstanding gaps in industry standards. The SEC must act without delay.”

David Massey, president of NASAA and North Carolina deputy securities administrator, said, “These legislative and policy recommendations are designed to ensure that the investor protections included in the Dodd-Frank Act are not weakened or delayed by funding constraints.”

Steven Irwin, Pennsylvania securities commissioner and chair of NASAA’s federal legislation committee, said this year’s agenda contains many long-standing NASAA priorities but takes on added urgency given the anticipated challenges facing the regulatory reform (the Dodd-Frank Act) in the new Congress.

“Dodd-Frank was born out of necessity and not out of a desire for regulation for regulation’s sake,” Irwin said. “Congress must not repeal Dodd-Frank and rip open the regulatory gaps it seeks to close. The trust that formerly supported our markets must be restored if the heart of our system of capital formation is to thrive.”

IE