It’s quite remarkable in this economic climate and yet completely expected that financial services entities would be lawyering and lobbying up to prepare opposition to — or “meaningful dialogue” with — Obama Administration regulatory efforts. Enter the Managed Funds Association and its annual meeting, held today. The euphemisms and double-talk drip from the article posted today on the Web site for Investment News: The Leading News Source for Financial Advisers:
The MFA is seeking to become more involved in the regulatory process in an effort to clarify misconceptions about the industry and hopefully head off knee-jerk-style regulatory actions, according to Richard Baker, MFA president and chief executive.
“One absolute certainty about Washington is that facts don’t get in the way of action,” said Mr. Baker, a former Republican congressman from Louisiana who took over as head of the MFA a year ago.
Although the organization might be claiming that a certain amount of regulation is inevitable, it will be interesting to see how quickly and at what point the MFA becomes an opponent of proposed regulatory reform efforts. The view of one the panelists at the conference make me quite suspicious of the group’s openness to regulation:
“Get over the fact that it’s coming, because the issue now becomes what can we as an industry do to help shape the debate,” said Darcy Bradbury, senior vice president with D.E. Shaw & Co. L.P. in New York[.]
Recent hires also suggest that the MFA means business. On Dec. 1, Stuart Kaswell, a partner Bryan Cave LLP, was hired as the general counsel for the MFA. He’s a former SEC regulator, who held a variety of industry jobs since and focused on white-collar defense and investigations, securities litigations and enforcement at Bryan Cave.
According to the MFA’s Web site, Louis Costantino, Jr., the former director of government affairs from Merrill Lynch, started at the MFA on Monday as vice president for government affairs. Next Monday, David Landers will join the MFA’s government affairs team, having previously served as director for external affairs and public policy at Credit Suisse.
If Obama plans to change Washington, the influence of these lobbyists will be curtailed to informing the debate — not shaping it.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found