The former Republican is talking more about your world on his
website than Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are on their sites.
Michael Bloomberg — a former Republican
who is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination — calls out
agents, brokers and insurers several time in his new financial rules change
policy proposal.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who
is also running for the nomination, has expressed support for the fiduciary
rule in the past.
Another contender, Sen. Elizabeth Warren,
D-Mass., has expressed strong support for the U.S. Department of Labor’s
original fiduciary rule and best interest standard in a public letter sent to Eugene Scalia, the current
Labor secretary.
But the word “fiduciary” does not seem to
appear on Sanders’ website, or on the websites of Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar or
Tom Steyer.
Pete Buttigieg proposes creating a public
long-term care insurance program, and a new marketplace for private LTCI
policies, but he does not appear to use the word “fiduciary” on his website.
Warren mentions the fiduciary rule on her campaign site only briefly.
“I will restore the Labor Department’s
fiduciary rule that the Trump administration delayed and failed to defend in
court, so that brokers can’t cheat workers out of their retirement savings,”
Warren says on her site.
In that statement, Warren includes an embedded
link to an explanation of what she’s talking about — an article about the
death of the original fiduciary rule, posted on the Insurance Journal website,
and written by Neil Weinberg, a reporter for the Bloomberg news service.
Bloomberg became a billionaire by
founding Bloomberg L.P., the owner of an investment information data service
and of the Bloomberg new service. His news service has run many articles
about insurance regulation.
Here’s are three things Bloomberg says now
about the fiduciary rule and insurance, in his new financial rules change
proposal.
1. He wants to revive
the Dodd-Frank Act provisions that could lead to more regulator attention to
insurers’ finances.
“The Trump administration has been eroding
safeguards designed to make the financial system a source of strength, rather
than an agent of contagion,” according to Bloomberg’s new financial rules
change proposal. “It has allowed the largest U.S. banks to operate with less
equity, the loss-absorbing capital that helps them keep lending in hard times.
It has weakened mechanisms — such as stress tests and living wills — designed
to ensure that large financial institutions can weather a crisis or fail
safely…. It has abandoned efforts to address risks arising outside the
traditional banking system, at institutions such as insurance companies and
non-bank mortgage lenders.”
Bloomberg will seek to “reinvigorate efforts
to monitor and address risks arising outside the banking system, including by
subjecting systemically important non-bank institutions — such as insurers — to
added scrutiny and requirements,” according to the financial rules change
proposal.
2. He wants to
consider changing the insurance industry regulatory framework.
“The U.S. regulatory system is far too
fragmented,” according to the Bloomberg financial rules change proposal. “At
the federal level, 10 different entities are involved in overseeing
financial markets and institutions — with ample conflicts, overlaps and blind spots.
For example, four agencies regulate depository institutions, while none
oversees insurers.”
To address that concern, Bloomberg aims to
“create a bipartisan commission to recommend ways to make the U.S. financial
regulatory system more efficient and effective,” according to the proposal.
“Among the reform’s goals: prevent ‘venue-shopping’ by companies seeking
lighter regulation, and reduce overlapping and confusing rules and
jurisdictions.”
3. He wants to change
the standards governing the sale of insurance.
“Investment professionals who work on
commissions — such as brokers and insurance agents — often steer less
sophisticated customers into expensive financial products and away from better,
cheaper alternatives,” according to Bloomberg’s financial rule change proposal.
“The extra fees add up to billions of dollars a year, money that would
otherwise go toward ensuring retirees’ financial security. The Labor Department
issued a rule requiring such investment advisers to disclose conflicts and put
clients’ interests first. The Trump administration has reversed the rule.”
If Bloomberg becomes president, he will work
to “restore the Labor Department’s fiduciary duty rule, requiring brokers and
insurance agents to put their clients’ interests first,” according to the
proposal.
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