Eric Cantor warns of investor backlash in wake of Fisher remarks

Moelis & Co. vice chairman Eric Cantor said financial firms that fail to respect women in the workplace will increasingly be punished by customers. Speaking in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Cantor, former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, commented weeks after 68-year-old money manager Ken Fisher let loose a bunch of vulgar remarks at an industry conference. In the aftermath, investors have pulled about $3.1 billion from the $114 billion managed by Fisher Investments. [Recommended video: 2020 FPA president is academic aiming to professionalize planning]​ "The punishment, if you will, the reputational risk that came to bear and manifest itself was the investors in the fund began withdrawing their money," Mr. Cantor said during a panel at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh. "Certainly, we can see clients and others, especially in the public market, do have this reputational risk." The backlash around Mr. Fisher stems both from his remarks and then a failure to immediately understand the gravity of his words. At an industry conference on Oct. 8, Mr. Fisher compared the process of gaining a client's trust to "trying to get into a girl's pants" and talked about genitalia. He has since apologized for the comments. "What we've seen is that many of our clients in the utility space are trying to get ahead of this," Mr. Cantor said. "Trying to get ahead of this to avoid the backlash." [More: Inside Ken Fisher's private kingdom]​