Bill establishes senior fraud task force
Financial Regulation News
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) recently introduced legislation designed to create a task force focused on protecting seniors from fraud, financial crimes, and scammers.
The Senior Security Act would create a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) interdivisional task force charged with examining and identifying challenges facing senior investors.
“As Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, one of my top priorities is to fight fraud and financial exploitation targeted at older Americans,” Collins said. “Building on our efforts to thwart senior scams through the Senior$afe Act that became law last year, this bipartisan bill would create a task force to coordinate state authorities’ and regulators’ efforts to reduce senior investors’ risk of being defrauded.”
Under the legislation’s guidelines, every two years, in consultation with other SEC offices, state securities and law enforcement authorities, state insurance regulators and federal agencies, the task force would report its findings to Congress and recommend any regulatory or statutory changes.
Within two years of the bill becoming law, officials said the Government Accountability Office would study and report on the economic costs of senior citizen financial exploitation.
“Arizonans deserve to retire with dignity,” Sinema said. “We’re protecting Arizona seniors from scammers so they can have financial peace of mind in their retirement.”
Companion legislation of the Senior Security Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. It passed on April 30, 2019, by a bipartisan vote of 392 to 20.