SEC Doing More Economic Analysis of Proposed Rules

In response to critics, most notably the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Securities and Exchange Commission is adhering to recommendations by President Bush that government agencies undertake economic analysis before recommending new regulations, Dow Jones reports. And its findings that the cost of implementing independent directors at fund boards may outweigh the benefits could undermine that proposal.

“Now that we have had a chance to review the recently released mutual fund governance studies, the justification for an industrywide experiment seems even more tenuous,” SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins told the National Association for Business Economics.