Entities with criminal convictions shouldn't be allowed to manage assets, senators tell DOL

Citing an impending criminal conviction, two Democratic senators are asking the Department of Labor to refuse to allow Credit Suisse to continue as a qualified professional asset manager.

In a letter last week, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. and Tina Smith, D-Minn., also cited the bank’s 2014 conviction as evidence that the bank should not receive a waiver from being disqualified as a QPAM.

“If Credit Suisse were a natural person, with two criminal convictions for financial crimes in the last decade, we think it is highly unlikely that EBSA would grant a waiver allowing its continued involvement with pension plans,” the senators wrote in a letter to Ali Khawar, acting assistant secretary at the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

DOL is seeking public comment on whether to grant the bank a one-year waiver to allow it to continue as an asset manager. The waiver would be evaluated after one year. The bank had requested a 10-year waiver.

Comments on the waiver request must be filed by Feb. 22.

CSSEL, part of Credit Suisse, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of an October, 2021 criminal case filed against it. The bank in 2014 pleaded guilty to helping Americans in filing false tax documents and later received a waiver.

The bank should not receive another waiver, the senators wrote. “Federal law specifically bars entities with recent convictions from managing workers’ retirement assets, but EBSA has proposed a one-year exemption that would allow the company to continue these lucrative activities,” the senators wrote. “We urge you to reconsider and rescind this proposal, which would undermine efforts to hold Credit Suisse accountable for its illegal behavior and continue a precedent of EBSA refusing to enforce the law against banks that engage in illegal activity.”

The Democrats said they are concerned that the DOL has a “troubling pattern” of granting regulatory favors to big banks.

In its proposed waiver, the DOL said that the Credit Suisse affiliated QPAMs are separate from the bank’s divisions that pleaded guilty.

DOL said that Credit Suisse said the waiver would enable the covered plans to continue their investment strategy without interruption. The bank also said that the plans would incur significant costs if they decided to find other asset managers.

“The Applicant states that many of the assets in the accounts could be difficult to transition, and the interruption of certain investment strategies, such as stable value, could create significant disruption for Covered Plans that are 401(k) plans and their participants and beneficiaries,” the DOL said.