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Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 11:00 AM ET (16:00 BST)
Please join Capital Alpha’s Chuck Gabriel as he hosts veteran financial industry lobbyist Scott Talbott in a Thursday, June 16, conference call at 11:00am ET (16:00 BST) to discuss evolving federal regulation of auto loans and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary duty proposal.
Questions addressed will involve:
Dial-in information was provided to clients of Capital Alpha Partners. For more information or to paricipate in this call, please contact your Capital Alpha Partners representative below:
More on Auto Loans/Fiduciary Duty
Two regulatory stories unfolding this year stand out for the challenges they present to powerful D.C. lobbies, and also as potentially rewarding 'factor bets' for investors as the markets discount political risk.
The first of these involves the CFPB's efforts to force change in the discretionary markup practices of auto lenders and dealers (i.e., contesting unintentional discrimination, or "disparate impact"). While the Supreme Court's late-June decision to affirm disparate impact applied to mortgage lenders and housing agencies under the Fair Housing Act, and thus arguably had limited direct read-through for auto finance (which is governed by the Equal Credit Opportunity Act or ECOA), some lenders appear poised to "sue for peace," buying into a would-be legal safe harbor that could diminish risks of future lawsuits from the CFPB or Justice Department. The result of any such wave could prove negative for dealers, many of whom have been dependent on related revenue-sharing.
The second issue concerns the Labor Department's renewed efforts to combat conflicts of interest in the provision of retirement-account investment advice, through broadened "fiduciary duty" rules now to be aimed additionally at IRA rollovers. DOL's efforts to impose an expanded definition of investment advice upon broker-dealers, with a "best-interest" exemption as a principal safe harbor, threatens to force major changes in the differential pricing of mutual funds, commission-based compensation, revenue sharing, and other industry practices. The Department has signaled it will moderate it's mid-April proposals in order to make them more workable and temper resistance, therefore helping to assure that a new standard can be finalized by year-end and go into effect in 2H2016. But timing and nature of any such changes is uncertain.
More on Scott Talbott
Mr. Scott Talbott has been Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at The Electronic Transactions Association since February 2014. Mr. Talbott served as Senior Vice President for Government Affairs/Public Policy at Financial Services Roundtable. Mr. Talbott joined the Roundtable in 1994. Mr. Talbott served in the tax departments of Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. He was named NPR’s favorite bank lobbyist. Mr. Talbott is a frequent contributor to both national and local media. Mr. Talbott also served as counsel to the organization and managed the Roundtable's Political Action Committee. He has received numerous accolades in his tenure, including being named a top lobbyist by The Hill in both 2009 and 2011, as well as a "winner" for his work during the economic collapse of 2008 by Washingtonian magazine. In 2010, he appeared in the Oscar-winning film Inside Job about the economic collapse of 2008. Once named NPR's favorite bank lobbyist, he is a frequent contributor to both national and international media. He has a B.A. from Georgetown University, cum laude, and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law.
