The Securities Industry Association called Wednesday’s decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to formally exempt broker-dealers who offer fee-based brokerage accounts from registering as advisors “a victory for investors.”

The SIA says that the SEC’s ruling will allow broker-dealers to continue to provide a broad array of investment choices to their clients, and allow investors to choose how to pay for the financial services they receive.

“Today’s SEC action is a victory for investors,” said SIA president Marc Lackritz in a statement. “Placing broker-dealers that offer fee-based brokerage accounts to their clients under an additional, and wholly unnecessary, layer of regulation could have severely limited the availability of these popular accounts. The commission made the right decision.”

Currently, fee-based arrangements account for about US$280 billion in client assets, it reports.

SIA sought to have the SEC finalize its proposal to remove the threat of broker-dealers being subject to advisor registration. The association asserted that many firms would stop offering fee-based accounts rather than be subject to such a burdensome and redundant regulatory arrangement.

In addition to making its “no action” position permanent, the commission called for the SEC staff to conduct a study to further clarify the respective roles, functions, and compliance responsibilities of broker-dealers and investment advisers. “The SEC has acted in the best interests of effective and efficient regulation, and more importantly, in the best interests of investors,” Lackritz said.