Washington, D.C., April 20, 2021 – SIFMA today released the following statement from Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., SIFMA president and CEO, lauding House passage of H.R. 1565, the Senior Security Act of 2021, which would direct the GAO to study the economic costs of the financial exploitation of senior citizens:

“SIFMA strongly supports any efforts that focus on the most immediate and most damaging dangers faced by senior investors, including financial exploitation. H.R. 1565 will strengthen efforts to protect these investors from those bad actors closest to them. It is estimated that senior investors are being exploited out of billions of dollars a year – roughly $3 billion per year in media-reported cases alone, while only an estimated 1 in 44 cases are reported to the authorities. This cost does not even begin to consider the wide-ranging non-financial impacts and the increased reliance on government services. This legislation will go a long way towards helping to fully understand and capture these costs.  We applaud Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.) for their leadership on the important issue.”

In March, SIFMA submitted a letter to Congressional leadership urging support for the bill, which can be found here.

-30-

SIFMA is the leading trade association for broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers operating in the U.S. and global capital markets. On behalf of our industry’s nearly 1 million employees, we advocate for legislation, regulation and business policy, affecting retail and institutional investors, equity and fixed income markets and related products and services. We serve as an industry coordinating body to promote fair and orderly markets, informed regulatory compliance, and efficient market operations and resiliency. We also provide a forum for industry policy and professional development. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). For more information, visit http://www.sifma.org