Practice

President Bush proposed last Monday a $913 million budget for the Securities and Exchange Commission, one that would represent a 13% increase in available funds for the regulatory agency.

Another casualty was added to the growing list of mutual fund criminals last Tuesday as a New York bank executive was hauled off in handcuffs for allegedly arranging $1 billion in financing for illegal mutual fund trades.

The SEC's Dec. 11, 2003 proposal to end forward-pricing end runs around the 4 p.m. hard NAV close, has raised criticism from 401(k) plan sponsors, investors and administrators.

Fidelity Investments might soon lose $475 million in assets that it runs for the Massachusetts state pension fund, Fidelity confirmed last week.

Six financial services companies, including UBS AG and Wachovia Corp., have reportedly agreed to settle SEC allegations that their brokers failed to give promised mutual fund discounts.

U.S. Bancorp Asset Management last week indicated in an SEC filing it is cooperating with the SEC on an informal inquiry into trading activity in the First American Small Cap Growth Opportunities fund. Spokespeople for the company did not return phone calls seeking comment.

NEW YORK -- Donald A. Yacktman, the president and chief investment officer of Yacktman Asset Management in Buffalo Grove, Ill., is no stranger to heated boardroom battles, and as the great bull run of the 1990s was reaching its heights, he made headlines as a result.

To avert any potential scandals like those that have plagued equity analysts, the Bond Market Association has drafted its own guidelines for independent fixed income research. And these are slated for discussion this Friday at a BMA-sponsored Asset Managers Forum in New York.

OXFORD, Miss. -- The mutual fund fee bill is in the mail. And it should spell out, in hard dollars and cents, all the hidden costs of mutual funds, including 12b-1 fees. And these total costs can be so significant that in some cases they are several times greater than the fund's stated expense ratio.

Separately managed account pioneer Frank Campanale doesn't see any outstanding areas where regulators might swoop in and shake up the industry's foundation like in the mutual fund arena - but thinks there is a small window that might draw scrutiny.