SIFMA Sends Letter to SEC Chair White on Placement Agent Activities of Municipal Advisors

SIFMA submitted a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White regarding the placement agent activities of municipal advisors.

SIFMA submitted the letter in response to a December 14, 2014 letter from the National Association of Municipal Advisors ("NAMA") that asked the SEC to exempt registered municipal advisors from being required to register as broker-dealers or as investment advisers in connection with specified municipal advisory activities.

In the letter, SIFMA disagreed strongly with NAMA's position that a financial advisor should be exempt from registration as a broker-dealer or investment advisor solely because of his or her registration as a municipal advisor. SIFMA argued that NAMA's position reflected a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the "investor protection goals" involving broker-dealer and investment advisor regulation and would create gaps in regulatory protection.

See: SIFMA Letter.