Committee Approves Velazquez Bill Protecting Investors in Puerto Rico, U.S. Territories

Bill Would Close Decades-Old Loophole Allowing Conflict of Interest

Washington, DC – The House Committee on Financial Services today approved legislation authored by U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) to close a decades-old loophole that has caused significant financial losses for many Puerto Rican investors and retirees. Velázquez’s bill, H.R.5322, would extend to investment companies operating in Puerto Rico and all the U.S. territories the same protections as those afforded to investors residing on the U.S. mainland.

“I find it unconscionable that Puerto Ricans cannot access the same transparency requirements and consumer protections other American investors benefit from,” Velázquez noted. “This regulatory and legislative oversight has resulted in many Puerto Ricans losing hard earned retirement dollars – a practice my bill would bring to an end.”

It has been publicly reported that some actors in Puerto Rico have used the current law’s loophole to act both as an underwriter for the issuance of bonds, and then repackaged those same bonds into mutual funds they sold exclusively to investors on the island. While this type of arrangement is legal in Puerto Rico due to the 1940 exemption, it would be prohibited on the U.S. mainland. The situation has been compounded by Puerto Rico’s ongoing debt crisis. Puerto Rican investors holding government bonds have suffered massive losses and are claiming that at least one major investment company did not properly disclose the risks of these funds, due to this conflict of interest.

“Retirees and other vulnerable citizens are being fleeced because of this outdated exemption in federal investment law,” Velázquez noted. “This bill would ensure statutory parity by ending this practice.”

At the time the exemption was created in 1940, it was suggested that Puerto Rico and other “U.S. possessions” were physically located too far away for the Investment Act protections to be enforced. Since then both Hawaii and Alaska, which are farther away from the mainland than Puerto Rico, have been granted statehood and the protections in the 1940 Act. Additionally, air travel between the U.S. and Puerto Rico is common and many of these financial instruments are today traded electronically.

“It is absurd to suggest that we are unable to have a robust financial regulatory presence in Puerto Rico for geographical reasons,” Velázquez added. “All this exemption does today is enrich large financial companies at the expense of vulnerable retirees and working families.”

The legislation, the “U.S. Territories Investor Protection Act”, was approved by the Committee by a vote of 59 to 0. It must now be considered by the full U.S. House of Representatives. Velázquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, is the third most senior Democratic Member of the Financial Services Committee.