Consumer protection suspended

On Monday, President Trump promised to do “a big number” on the Wall Street reforms we helped pass in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

On Friday, he started to follow through on his promise, delaying a commonsense consumer protection to require retirement advisers to act in their clients’ best interests.

Consumer protections on the line

This is the first salvo in what we expect to be many attacks against on the consumer protections that we’ve helped put in place over the last decade.

President Trump made no secret of what he thinks of the Wall Street reform law during the campaign. He vowed to dismantle it.

Some in Congress have been working to do the same — including taking aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that we helped shepherd into law — since the Dodd-Frank Act passed in 2010.

What‘s at stake? The Fiduciary Rule

One of the orders would delay the implementation of a commonsense consumer protection that would require retirement advisers to act in their clients’ best interests.

When you hear about the retirement savings protection the president suspended, you might be surprised it wasn’t already required.

And that feeling is totally justified — it’s absurd to think that retirement advisers can push their clients toward investments with higher fees or lower returns, just because they might get a bigger payout from the investments.

It’s a real problem, which costs American families as much as $17 billion a year, which is why we were so happy when the rule was announced last year.

This commonsense consumer protection is a fundamental example of Wall Street reform doing its job, and working to protect the financial well-being of regular Americans like you and me. The attacks on these protections aren’t going to let up. That’s why it’s critical that you stand with us as we stand up for consumers.

But now, those savings and this common sense consumer protection are on the chopping block.

We’re not backing down

In a press release, U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Program Director, Ed Mierzwinski, says:

“We will fight to protect Wall Street reform and the highly-successful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency at the front lines of consumer protection that has been targeted by big Wall Street banks, debt collectors and even payday lenders because it works for consumers, not them. We will also defend the CFPB’s extraordinary director, Richard Cordray. We cannot let Wall Street convince the President and Congress to re-rig the system so they win and everyone else loses.”

The attacks on these protections aren’t going to let up. That’s why it’s critical that you stand with us as we stand up for consumers.