Practice

The SEC voted unanimously last Tuesday to adopt measures to improve the transparency of mutual funds and variable annuities. Beginning Dec. 5, all funds must now disclose what risks, if any, market timing poses for their funds, as well as reveal in their fund prospectuses whether their board has adopted rules against market timing. Should a board have decided such rules are not necessary, it must spell out its reasons why.

The Securities and Exchange Commission sure does talk a tough game, but when it came to its settlement with Putnam Investments of Boston earlier this month, the agency was speaking in whispers.

The indictment of former Bank of America broker Theodore C. Sihpol, III last week should sound the alarm for fund executives that those criminally charged in the scandal could spend years locked up with murderers and rapists.

Lars Soderberg, executive vice president of institutional services and member of the management committee at Janus Capital, has agreed to take a leave of absence from the company. In the mean time, Janus said, it "will continue to evaluate Soderberg's future role with the company, in light of the ongoing investigation of the mutual fund industry and related regulatory matters."

Employees of maligned fund giant Putnam Investments tiptoed around company procedures in the area of expense payments, several Putnam funds admitted in a series of disclosures to shareholders.

Massachusetts Financial Services last week agreed to pay a $50 million fine to the SEC for not disclosing directed-brokerage agreements, marking the first time the SEC has penalized a fund company for failing to disclose its trading arrangements with brokerage firms in exchange for promoting its funds.

The SEC is going to be paying closer attention to abnormal buying and selling in mutual funds. Cash flow is one area that will get heightened scrutiny.

With a potentially groundbreaking governance proposal pending, requiring an independent chairman, there's been a lot of bickering in the mutual fund industry about how to address conflicts in the boardroom.

Putnam's woes are far from over as federal regulators are swinging for the fences and are poised to ask a judge to punish the firm more severely than any company mired in the scandal so far.

The high price of not keeping up with regulatory demands is well documented, but some in the fund industry are growing increasingly concerned about the growing costs of implementing new measures to keep up with a steady stream of proposed requirements.