Funds Scramble to Obey Broker Fee Rule

Mutual fund firms are taking steps to honor the Securities and Exchange Commission’s pending rule that will make it illegal to use commission money to pay brokerage firms for promoting their funds, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

"The SEC will be looking for policies in place to ensure an information barrier between traders and distributors," Jennifer B. McHugh, advisor to the director at the Commission’s investment management division, told Dow Jones. "We will be testing for evidence of any quid pro quo under which a broker might be getting more commissions from a fund because of the big role it plays in distributing fund shares."