The compliance deadline for meeting the Securities and Exchange Commission's new liquidity requirements on money market funds is coming up so soon that firms have to prepare fast, Peter Bonanno, general counsel of the Goldman Sachs mutual fund complex, told ICI conference attendees.
The audience at the Investment Company Institute conference in Phoenix was warned that a sleeper in financial regulatory reform legislation could make it more risky for funds to invest in big firms, which the government deems to be a hazard to the financial system, said State Street Global Advisors General Counsel Phillip Gillespie.
The Investment Company Institute and the major players in the money market fund industry have reached a decision they will try to mobilize a big enough cash backstop to head Washington off from killing the fund stable net asset value.
The country's top mutual fund regulator is concerned that as more specialized exchange traded funds are developed, the spreads between the net asset values and market prices might start to widen, which could prompt the Securities and Exchange Commission to step in.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has given certain investment advisors that use omnibus accounts more time to arrange delivery of client statements in compliance with its recently amended rules on custody arrangements.
The Senate on March 5 added two tax measures affecting defined contribution plans to a pending bill that Congress is likely to pass.
The Investment Company Institute last week wrote to remind the Internal Revenue Service of the imbalance in the Service’s carryover treatment of mutual fund gains and losses.
The Investment Company Institute has asked regulators for flexibility to let mutual funds use brokers to staff call centers on a temporary basis during peak business periods.
The boards of directors for two funds advised by Boulder Investment Advisers could end up terminating Boulder’s advisory agreements as the result of actions taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission staff.
Fidelity Investments very strongly champions an exemption for block-size trades from a rule proposal that asks institutions trading in dark pools to disclose their transactions in real time.
The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries is urging the Internal Revenue Service to allow plan fiduciaries a 30-day grace period during which sponsors could self-correct errors occurring in auto-enrollment programs and also for errors made in connection with Roth elections.
For the first time, high-ranking elements of the Obama Administration have endorsed Prof. Teresa Ghilarducci’s controversial plan to create a new hybrid retirement savings vehicle offering workers a guaranteed return on investment.
Mutual fund and fund provider officials and participants in certain kinds of defined contribution plans would be exempted from filing Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBAR reports, under proposed rules published on Feb. 26 by the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
If the government chooses to give incentives to annuitize 401(k) assets, those incentives ought also to be made available to fund firms selling competing products, the head of the mutual fund lobby said in a recent speech.
The lower fee structures of exchange-traded funds will continue to pose a significant threat to the mutual fund industry, a senior fund industry executive told the Investment Adviser Compliance Forum last week.
If Congress fails to resolve the war between advisors and brokers it seems the Securities and Exchange Commission will have no choice but decide itself how existing law will deal with the blurring between the two industries.
The mutual fund industry is divided over how much light it wants to let into dark pools.
The Investment Company Institute wants the Internal Revenue Service to hurry up and finalize regulations for cost basis reporting and to drop altogether the idea that fund investors must put down in writing which kind of average cost alternative they want to their brokers to use.
The American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries is following up an earlier effort it had launched to persuade the Labor Department to let employers “self-correct” for late 401(k) contributions without having to file an application with the department to do so.
The Investment Company Institute is throwing its support behind a bill in the Ohio Senate that would let taxpayers direct their state tax refunds to be deposited in IRA or savings accounts—but not in 401(k) accounts.
A coalition of consumer groups and state regulators has urged the Senate Banking Committee to resist industry pressure to eliminate or water down a plan to subject broker/dealers and insurance brokers to a fiduciary duty.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro intends to take on closely linked fights over point-of-sale disclosure and 12(b)-1 fees, she said during the "The SEC Speaks" gathering last week.
It may be as late as June before the Labor Department gets out a final regulation governing disclosure to plan fiduciaries of fees charged by plan providers, Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi disclosed this week.
Anna Rappaport, a noted specialist in retirement issues, has been appointed to the ERISA Advisory Council, the Labor Department announced on Jan. 29.
Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) last month introduced legislation to continue through 2010 the 2009 exemption from the minimum required distribution rule which Congress has given taxpayers with retirement savings accounts.
The Independent Directors Council published guidance for mutual fund boards on retaining and keeping tabs on the growing subadvisor population.
Senate Aging Committee Chairman Herbert Kohl (D-Wisc.) is unlikely to introduce target-date fund legislation before March.
Securities and Exchange Commission staff has for now given up on trying to differentiate between institutional and retail money market funds.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is going to try to strike an “appropriate balance” between National Market System transparency and enabling big institutions like mutual funds to execute their trades, James Brigagliano, deputy director of the Division of Trading and Markets, said recently.
Republican Scott Brown’s Senate election victory this week increases the chances of deadlock on financial regulatory reform legislation with the clock running out before an agreement on Capitol Hill sends a bill to President Obama.
The Investment Company Institute is urging the Financial Accounting Standards Board to defer the application of Statement 167, which could make advisors consolidate on an accounting basis with the funds they manage.
A California Republican House member has put in a bill that would allow individuals to put into tax sheltered retirement accounts an amount equal to all the money that would otherwise be counted as their gross taxable income.
Federal District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan last month turned down a motion to dismiss an investor suit brought against First Trust Advisors.
Industry professionals say the appointment of new boss Carlo di Florio and a number of senior officials has ended months of uncertainty about the future of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.
The Investment Company Institute wants certain mutual funds to be among those that can buy municipal bonds during retail order periods.
Five years after it began the multimillion dollar fund fees case brought against Capital & Management Company ended on Dec. 28, with Federal District Judge Gary Feess totally demolishing the claims of shareholders that CRMC’s fees or profits were excessive or its performance hurt by the huge size of its funds.
The Investment Company Institute has told European regulators it would like to see them create a European definition of a money market fund resembling the one in U.S. regulations, with equivalent portfolio quality and liquidity requirements.
A task force set up to mitigate the systemic risk posed by tri-party repo financing when a financial crisis occurs has come up with ideas for reducing the intra-day exposure for the clearing banks involved in such transactions.
More fuel for changing the defined contribution retirement saving system comes from the first comprehensive National Financial Capability Study of how well Americans manage their money, conducted by the Investor Education Foundation of the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority.
Senate Aging Committee Chairman Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.) this week charged that many target date funds are “composed of hidden underlying funds that can have high fees, low performance or excessive risk.”
After the Senate convenes its 2010 session on Jan. 19, the Senate Banking Committee will try to get some momentum going toward passage of a financial regulatory reform bill that can complement the tough bill voted out of the House.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking minority member of the Finance Committee, last week introduced legislation that would make permanent the ability of 529 plan participants to make up to four changes in their 529 investment options in a single year.
The revised financial regulatory reform bill readied for House floor action this week had new language in it that would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a study on “enhancing investment advisor examinations” by setting up an self regulatory organization for advisors.
Both mutual funds and retirement plans would be affected by items on the 2009-2010 Priority Guidance Plan the Internal Revenue Service made public a few days ago.
Separating the notice to shareholders about an upcoming election from the proxy card actually used to vote will not cause shareholders to cast a more informed vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission was told in a recent comment letter from the Investment Company Institute.
The Investment Company Institute wants regulators to look beyond current market structure rule proposals on “dark pools” and “flash orders” to a “broader debate on market structure that will raise important questions about numerous aspects of our markets in general and their impact on investors.”
A Webinar held last week looking into how a shift from U.S. to international accounting standards would affect mutual funds produced the welcome forecast that something like the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants audit guide for funds would continue on.
Internal Revenue Service officials are warning that self-certification of the need for emergency withdrawal of 457 plan assets will not be enough to justify a participant getting the money.
The BATS Exchange, the third largest U.S. equity market, on Nov. 20 told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it supports the agency’s proposal to ban “flash orders.”
The strategic plan for 2010-2015 recently issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission omits any reference to modernizing the duties of fund board members—a subject the SEC has been working on for some time.
Financial Accounting Statement 167 will not apply to mutual funds until late in 2010, the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted last week.
Eight federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, this week unveiled the final version of the model privacy notice form they have jointly adopted for the use of financial firms complying with the privacy statute.
The Labor Department this week scrapped the proposed investment advice rule left behind by the departed Bush administration and announced it would replace it with another proposal, but didn’t say when it was coming.
If the Securities and Exchange Commission chooses to curb the use of “dark pools,” it ought to look likewise at high frequency trading “pinging” that propels fund portfolio managers to hide their trades in the secrecy of dark pools, said speakers at an Investment Company Institute event Monday.
Closed-end Fund boards should move carefully before approving certain practices that benefit insiders, Andrew Donohue, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management, said in a Nov. 12 speech to the Independent Directors Council.
Bari Havlik, chief compliance officer with Charles Schwab, blasted a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority plan to extend its reach in obtaining documents during probes, saying it would leave firms and individuals without basic procedural protections guaranteed under federal law and could expose them to third-party claims.
A member of the Senate Banking Committee is moving to resurrect the issue of fund governance just as Congress is reaching the point of making decisions on how to shape the financial regulatory structure.
Some Republican House members are offering bills that loosen the tax treatment of retirement accounts.
An ombudsman to receive complaints made by outsiders against the Securities and Exchange Commission or its staff was added to the SEC bill before it was voted out of the House Financial Services Committee last week.