The SEC has been entertaining a number of ideas to prevent the abuses that have bogged the industry down over the last eight months. One rule would require at least a 2% fee charged to investors on a fund bought and sold within a five-day period.
"My basic concern, which I noted at the meeting where the rule was proposed, is that this is a stop-gap measure and one that can be easily gamed," Glassman said in a speech given before the
Glassman said that it is not clear that this rule is "necessary at this time," as the Commission has recently adopted rules requiring better disclosure of a funds market timing policies as well as its vulnerability to timers. Additionally, funds already have the ability to limit the number of trades investors can make in a fund.
"As I said when we proposed the 2% redemption fee, I supported putting the proposal out for comment only because the Commission committed to a further examination of ways to improve fair-value pricing," Glassman said. " If timers can exploit stale prices by assigning a more accurate value to the fund, then portfolio managers should be able to undertake a similar exercise to value their own fund."
Glassman said that a combination of disclosure and oversight of fair-value pricing may better address timing in the fund industry than the current proposals.
Furthermore, Glassman said of requiring three of four board directors be disinterested and the chairman be independent that she would like to see some "solid, compelling evidence that the purported benefits of this proposal outweigh its costs before adopting such a rule."
Glassman added that it is already required that a majority of fund directors be independent and those board officials have the ability to choose an independent chairman. "It was in the context of these already stringent independence requirements that I asked for evidence that further increasing the level of independence, as we currently define it, or requiring an independent chairman, would improve the metrics fund shareholders care about: high performance and low cost."
Glassman stopped short of saying how she intends to vote on the proposals, telling the audience only that she will soon have more to say on this issue when the SEC meets to vote on the proposal. The proposal requiring the independent chair is widely thought to have the favor of Chairman William Donaldson and two democratic members of the five-person commission.
