Compliance May 8, 2025

Bisignano Confirmed As Social Security Commissioner

Fiserv announced that Michael Lyons will replace Bisignano as the company’s CEO.

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The U.S. Senate confirmed American businessman Frank Bisignano as commissioner of the Social Security Administration in a 53 to 47, party–line vote Tuesday. His selection for the position had been announced in December.

The now former CEO of tech company Fiserv Inc., Bisignano’s term will expire in January 2031. Fiserv announced that Michael Lyons will replace Bisignano as the company’s CEO.

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In his new federal role, Bisignano will be tasked with delivering financial security for more than 70 million Americans. He will oversee operations, focusing on improving the agency’s service and ensuring the sustainability of the program, which is on track to run out of funds by 2035.

Bisignano joins the SSA during a pivotal period for the agency, which announced plans to downsize by cutting its staff count to 50,000 employees from about 57,000.

Republicans lauded his confirmation.

“Mr. Bisignano understands the importance of improving customer service at the Social Security Administration, including by bringing down wait times, ensuring that individuals can interact with the SSA in the way they prefer and improving the SSA’s payment accuracy,” said Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, in a statement. “I am confident Mr. Bisignano has the experience and vision to succeed in this mission, and look forward to working with him as Commissioner.”

Representative, Jason Smith, R-Missouri, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, supported the confirmation as well.

“Mr. Bisignano’s decades of experience running large financial institutions will be a vital asset as the SSA works to modernize its agency to better serve its mission and be more responsive to beneficiaries all while protecting the program for current retirees and future generations,” Smith said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said the confirmation would have a negative effect on the agency.

“[Republicans’] strategy here is death by a thousand cuts,” said Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, in a statement released prior to the vote. “First they cut off customer service, then they close field offices and lay off staff. Then they farm out their customer service operations to private equity firms that employ AI chatbots and foreign call centers in an effort to plunge Americans into a maze of red tape designed to keep them from getting their earned benefits.

“Retirees who tuned into Frank Bisignano’s confirmation hearing hoping to hear that he planned on halting the chaos and destruction of the Social Security Administration caused by Elon Musk’s DOGE team were left disappointed,” Fiesta said in a statement.

The Markets May 8, 2025

Industry Anticipates SEC Approval of Dual Share Class ETF Offerings

The Securities and Exchange Commission in March said it was prioritizing its review of applications for firms aiming to offer ETF share classes of its traditional mutual funds.

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Most exchange traded fund issuers say they expect active and passive mutual funds adding ETF share classes to be approved and 93% of standing applicants have requested exemptive relief for dual-share-class structure in their filings through December 2024, according to the inaugural edition of Cerulli Edge—U.S. Product Development Edition.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in March said it was prioritizing its review of applications for firms aiming to offer ETF share classes of its traditional mutual funds. Some fifty applications for such relief have been waiting approval for up to two years.

According to Cerulli, 69% of polled ETF issuers said they either already have filed exemptive relief applications (29%), are planning to file for exemptive relief at a later date (11%), or are considering a dual-share-class structure initiative and following developments (29%).

“SEC filings from various applicants … list advantages including ‘lower portfolio transaction costs,’ ‘greater tax efficiency,’ and an ‘additional distribution channel for asset growth and economies of scale’ when it comes to ETF share classes on mutual funds, as well as ‘efficient portfolio rebalancing’ and ‘greater basket flexibility’ for mutual fund classes on ETFs,” wrote Cerulli analyst Sally Jin in the firm’s recent report on the topic. “Other asserted arguments for the dual-share-class structure point to initiatives in place that reap similar benefits—including cloning mutual fund strategies into ETFs and mutual-fund-to-ETF conversions—that simultaneously respond to investor demand and raise fiduciary challenges that the dual-share-class structure could be better fit to take on.”

Vanguard has been the sole manager able to offer a multi-class share structure under a patent that expired in mid-2023. Other ETF issuers are now seeking to replicate the structure through exemptive relief from the SEC. Asset managers including Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Dimensional Fund Advisors and BlackRock have filed for similar exemptive relief.

In a speech earlier this year at the Investment Company Institute’s 2025 investment management conference, then-acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda said that ETF market growth over the last twenty years has demonstrated how experimentation can work in asset management. As ETFs now account some 30% of total industry assets, Uyeda said managers should be encouraged to continue improving.

Previously, the SEC has  pointed to concerns, including excessive leverage, conflicts of interest, investor confusion, the risk of cross-subsidization, cash redemption and fund expense payment discrepancies, and inequitable voting power, when questioning dual-share-class ETFs, according the Cerulli findings.

On the distribution side, the survey found that ETF managers cite “broker/dealer reluctance to approve/make ETF share classes available on [broker/dealer] platforms (54%), operational complexity of supporting mutual fund and ETF share classes (43%), and asset manager unwillingness to offer ETF transparency to mutual fund strategies (29%)” as impediments to the adoption of dual-share class funds.

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