The debate over whether the Securities and Exchange Commission should write a rule to put brokers under a fiduciary mandate is "not fair right now" because of a mismatch in exam data between brokers and advisors, SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher said this week.

The debate over whether the agency should use its authority under Section 913 of the Dodd-Frank Act to write a uniform fiduciary rule for brokers and advisors "has been colored by a view of brokers that's decidedly negative," Gallagher said in an interview with ThinkAdvisor, a sister website. "If you talk to many of the consumer advocates and others, they will cite to you all of the transgressions of the brokers."

But "there are so many public displays of malfeasance in the brokerage industry because we (the SEC) resourced oversight of brokers so much more than advisors. Therefore, we know a lot more about brokers and their practices — we know when they are committing rule violations, and there are so many more (BD) rules to violate."

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Melanie Waddell

Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.