The American Bankers Association today urged the Department of Labor to delay proposed changes to Form 5500, which reports annual information about the operation, funding, assets and investments of pensions and other employee benefit plans. ABA requested that the department delay the finalization and implementation of proposed financial reporting changes to Form 5500’s Schedule H, or remove some of the proposed reporting requirements, such as those focused on “hard to value” assets and asset identifiers.
ABA said that it supports improving the usability of the form, but added that the proposal would create unnecessary reporting burdens and costs for banks and other reporting entities. Several of the proposal’s changes are highly problematic for Form 5500 reporting entities, including banks, ABA told the DOL.
The association recommended that financial reporting requirements under Schedule H instead should be addressed separately as part of the DOL’s larger, ongoing effort to modernize the financial and other annual reporting requirements on the form. The department should also conduct public hearings and roundtable discussions with banks and other stakeholders as part of the rulemaking process, ABA said, adding that those discussions would ensure that new requirements are feasible for Form 5500 filers.
