WASHINGTON — A group of Democrat lawmakers led by Rep. Maxine Waters of California, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on diversity among asset managers.
While the GAO has studied the issue before, as the lawmakers note in the letter, Republicans have
In the
They asked that the GAO evaluate recommendations to improve diversity, including requiring that investment committees include at least one person of color and one woman, and that investment advisors in their reporting to the federal institutional investors provide more demographic data.
Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina, Joyce Beatty of Ohio, Al Green of Texas, Al Lawson of Florida, Juan Vargas of California, Nikema Williams of Georgia, and Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Patty Murray of Washington and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also signed on to the letter.
"Diversity within the asset management industry is not only a matter of fairness for professionals in the financial services sector, but it has wide-ranging impacts on the millions of Americans whose $115 trillion are under management," the letter reads. "It has long been documented that minority- and women-owned (MWO) asset management firms perform as well as their peers, yet nearly 99% of assets continue to be managed by White, male-led firms," the lawmakers said in the letter. "Despite congressional and administrative efforts to address the disparities that limit opportunities for MWO asset managers, there has been little to no progress made over the last decade."
