Good afternoon,
Attached please find NAFCU Regulatory Affairs Counsel Andrew Morris' letter to the Department of Labor regarding the proposed extension of the department's, "Fiduciary Duty Rule."
In the letter, Morris wrote, "NAFCU and our members are concerned that the Fiduciary Duty Rule casts a wide net that unfairly burdens credit union activity with complex requirements and potential litigation risk. For example, the requirements of the rule are triggered when an individual provides a “recommendation,” which is defined as a “a communication that, based on its content, context, and presentation, would reasonably be viewed as a suggestion that the advice recipient engage in or refrain from taking a particular course of action.”
"NAFCU believes that there is little merit in requiring credit unions to comply with a complex fiduciary duty requirement when there is minimal, if any, data indicating that potential conflicts of interest have negatively impacted credit union member service. Conversely, there is no shortage of evidence describing the costs and accompanying reduction in consumer choice that would follow enforcement of the rule."
If you would like more information on this matter or would like to speak about this with a NAFCU expert, please let me know.