“A lobbying campaign by the securities industry threatens to water down a U.S. financial reform measure that was supposed to protect American states, towns and cities from being taken for a ride by financial advisors,” Karen Brettell of Reuters reports.

Under pressure from House Republicans, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has “raised the bar for which firms qualify for its tougher swap dealer requirements,” Brettell writes.  In September 2012, the House stepped up the pressure by passing H.R. 2827, which, according to Brettell, “seeks to broaden the fiduciary exemption to any advice given by brokers, dealers or banks that is ‘related to or connected’ with underwriting debt, sales of derivatives, and a host of other financial products.”

H.R. 2827 would make local communities even more vulnerable by creating “significant new exemptions and loopholes,” the story quotes AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley as saying.