Akin Gump to Lobby for Fidelity Against Money Market Fund Regulation

The largest U.S. money market fund provider has brought Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld into a battle it’s waging against financial policymakers in Washington.

Boston-based FMR LLC, better known as Fidelity Investments, has retained Akin partner Smith Davis to advocate for it on Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act implementation, money market fund regulation and tax reform, according to lobbying registration paperwork filed with Congress on Thursday. Davis leads Akin's financial institutions policy group.

Akin spokesman Benjamin Harris declined to comment. A Fidelity representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a regulatory body Dodd-Frank created, is pushing for reforms that it says would fix structural vulnerabilities of money market funds, safeguarding financial stability. Reforms that improved the resiliency of the funds in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis aren't enough, according to the council.

But Fidelity this month released a written statement saying that further changes to the funds are unnecessary.

"As an industry leader, we have been actively engaged in regulatory discussions and have continued to express our concerns about the potential consequences of structural changes to the funds," the company said.

Fidelity spent $2.9 million on federal lobbying in 2012, according to congressional records. For its advocacy efforts, the company used its own staffers, as well as lobbyists from firms that included Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and Capitol Tax Partners.