Practice

Jack Bogle is in demand. Senators want his opinion. The best legal minds in the industry, including ICI Chairman Paul Haaga, are sparring with him (see mutual fund summit story, page one).

NEW YORK -- Emphasizing the increased role of state attorney generals in criminal enforcement, Eliot Spitzer distinguished between recent financial services industry scandals to a packed criminal justice section of the New York State Bar Association lawyers last Thursday.

The million-dollar question of how much Putnam Investments paid to the SEC and other regulators in its settlement was answered last week - and it turned out to be a $24 million question.

WASHINGTON- Excessive fees and inadequate disclosure represent far more serious threats to mutual fund shareholders than the trading abuses uncovered in recent months and will require more stringent legislation to remedy them. And it's time to take the bull by the horns.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last Tuesday put forth the details of its code of ethics proposal for mutual funds, as part of a three-pronged approach to improve corporate governance and disclosure in the $7 trillion industry. (See code of ethics details, page 13.)

The best of intentions sometimes go awry. But, despite the 12b-1 rule's departure from its original spirit, dismantling the rule is not a viable option, research firm Lipper concludes in a recently released study.

Wielding their $1 trillion clout, state pension leaders and treasurers partnered with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently to tear into the SEC's proposed fund reforms.

SEC Chairman William Donaldson said last Tuesday the agency will seek the opinions of the nation's 91 million mutual fund investors over the next 60 days on what the ideal point-of-sale and trade-confirmation reports should look like for broker-sold funds.

The umpire strikes back. Investors are finally getting the right calls, as regulators have unveiled a series of aggressive steps to improve fund governance and eliminate hidden fees charged to shareholders.

If it is true that politics makes strange bedfellows, then financial services scandals make for even more curious divorces.