With the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule slated to take effect in April, industry opponents are hinging their hopes on stalling or blocking the regulation through three separate legal challenges. But in the meantime, they’re also planning for another possibility: full implementation of the rule, MorningConsult.com reported yesterday. “Almost every company we’ve talked to since the rule has come out has been 100 percent engaged in becoming compliant with the rule,” said Alice Joe, managing director of the Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Of the three lawsuits, that one that has drawn the most attention was filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Financial Services Roundtable in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Representing the plaintiffs is Eugene Scalia, a Washington-based lawyer whose most recent accomplishment was helping MetLife Inc. shed its designation as a systemically important financial institution through a federal case. In his brief submitted for the Texas court last month, Scalia focused on two key elements: that the Labor Department overstepped its authority in issuing the rule, and that the agency established a private right of action for violations of its Best Interest Contract Exemption, something only Congress has the authority to do.
