American Consumer & Investor Institute Executive Director Barbara Comstock Takes Aim at Proposed SEC Rule That Will Stifle Innovation & Harm Retail Investors

SEC's Predictive Data Analytics Proposal Would Eliminate Access to Tools That Millions of Americans Rely On to Invest & Secure Their Financial Future

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Barbara Comstock, Executive Director of the American Consumer & Investor Institute, released the following statement after filing comments opposing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed predictive data analytics rule. The proposal would hand SEC regulators control over nearly every technology used by every broker-dealer and investment adviser to interact with a wide swath of investors, including tens of millions of retail investors.

"We believe that technology has been a critical component in educating investors and making markets more accessible, allowing for a much broader population to invest for the long term," American Consumer & Investor Institute Executive Director Barbara Comstock wrote in the comment letter. "The SEC's proposal is simply bad policy. It would stifle innovation that has brought down barriers to investing and would deprive the public of access to the tools and information they need to learn about markets and make educated investment decisions. ... We urge the SEC to withdraw this uninformed, unnecessary, and harmful proposal, which would reverse much of the progress that has been made towards bolstering market access and financial literacy to the benefit of everyday investors' long-term financial health."

Comstock's comment letter follows her recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, co-authored with former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, outlining how the SEC's "breathtaking power grab" will result in "micromanaging the use of technology through unduly prescriptive, burdensome, and unworkable requirements."

Read the full SEC comment letter here.

SOURCE American Consumer & Investor Institute