Maryland Smith’s Russ Wermers Named to SEC Advisory Committee

Maryland Smith finance professor Russ Wermers was selected by the Securities and Exchange Commission to serve on its new Asset Management Advisory Committee, formed to offer advice and recommendations to the SEC on how regulations and industry trends impact investors.   

The high-profile, 23-member committee includes top executives and investment managers at some of the country’s largest banks and institutional investment advisors, regulators, and two academics (including Wermers). Wermers holds the endowed Dean’s Chair in Finance, and is chairman of the Smith School’s finance department as well as director of the Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

“Asset management is a critical component of our markets and is especially important to Main Street investors,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton in a news release announcing the committee. “This committee will help the Commission ensure that our regulatory approach to asset management meets the needs of retail investors and market participants at a time when the industry is evolving rapidly.”

The committee will be formally established on Nov. 1, 2019, for a two-year term with the option for renewal, according to a statement from the SEC. The statement said the group will take up topics like developments affecting investors and market participants, the effects of globalization, and changes in the role of technology and service providers.

In an article in Financial Advisor magazine, Karen Barr, president and CEO of the Investment Adviser Association (IAA), pointed to Wermers as an important member of the new committee. Wermers recently conducted research for IAA on how investors, markets, and the U.S. economy benefit from the presence of active fund managers.

Wermers’ research focuses on the efficiency of securities markets, as well as the role of institutional investors in setting stock prices. His past research has developed new approaches to measuring and attributing the performance of mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds, as well as devising winning strategies for investing in these funds. He also studies the investment behavior of asset managers and the impact of trades on stock markets.