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The regulations are the result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which President Bush signed last summer in response to rampant scandal on Wall Street.
The SEC proposed rules that govern investment companies' disclosure of executive codes of ethics and audit committees.
Specifically, the commission said that firms will be required to disclose the number of financial experts who serve on a company's audit committee, as well as their names. Complexes will also have to certify that those experts are "independent of management, as determined by the company's board of directors," the SEC said in a statement.
Firms will also have to disclose whether they have adopted a code of ethics that governs top executives. If a firm has not adopted an ethics code, it must explain why. In addition, companies must regularly disclose amendments to such codes, as they relate to top officers.
The SEC defined a code of ethics as a document that governs, among other factors, conflicts of interest, disclosure of reports and documents to the commission or the public and prompt internal reporting of code violations.
The new rule proposals come after several SEC meetings late last summer, when the commission interpreted the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation to apply to fund companies. At that time, the SEC said that top fund executives must sign off on financial reports, as well as reports that are sent to shareholders.
