WASHINGTON, DC – Today, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new, enhanced disclosure rules and restrictions on conflicted practices for private fund advisers that will better protect investors and crack down on profiteering from unscrupulous business practices, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a senior member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, who authored the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform title providing the SEC with authority to issue this rule, released the following statement:

“Collectively, these long overdue reforms are going to save ordinary investors a bundle.  Many reputable fund advisors already place their investors’ interests first.  These new rules will add meaningful transparency industrywide and will help ensure advisers are actually looking out for investors’ best interests and not just lining their own pockets.  For too long, millions of Americans that are invested in private funds have been unable to get basic information that they need to understand the fees they are being charged and how their investments are performing.  They have also been subjected to conflicted practices that have allowed private equity funds and hedge funds to profit at investors’ expense.

“These reforms are long overdue.  But they are not enough.  I will continue to push for greater transparency in the private markets and for outright prohibitions on conflicted practices that allow private equity funds and hedge funds to make enormous profits off ordinary Americans who are saving for retirement.” 

Senator Reed, along with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and others, penned a letter in August of 2022 and another letter in May of 2023 to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler urging the Commission to adopt the proposed private funds rules in order to enhance transparency at private funds and protect investors from conflicts and harmful practices.