PEC Supports Obama Plan For SEC Registration

The Private Equity Council has issued a statement in support of President Obama’s proposed plan for new financial regulation, which includes requiring private equity firms to register with the SEC.

The advocacy group’s support backhandedly mentions such registration is unnecessary since “private equity firms do not create systemic risk,” but basically admits that all in all, it could be worse. Since the group represents 14 of the largest buyout firms in the US, including Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, TPG and KKR, it’s hard to imagine any other firms putting up a fight.

Here’s the official statement from Doug Lowenstein, President of the PEC:

“The goals of financial regulatory reform should be to restore confidence in financial markets generally and the credit markets in particular, and to protect our financial system from the kind of meltdown that has devastated the global economy. We believe that the Obama Administration has crafted a plan that can accomplish these objectives.

“The plan calls for private equity firms to register as investment advisers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We support this proposal, even though it will result in new regulatory oversight for many private equity firms.

“While we and most experts agree that private equity firms do not create systemic risk, we also support the concept of data collection from market participants and we look forward to reviewing more detailed proposals as the legislative process unfolds.”