Regulation

While it may not decide the fate of about a dozen similar “excessive fee” cases that were brought against mutual fund companies in 2003 and 2004, charging that they should impose institutional-share, rather than retail-share fees on individual investors, it is an important step in the right direction.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously last Wednesday on a proposal that would require mutual funds to provide risk/return, fee and strategy information using the same new digital data tagging system as the 500 largest U.S. corporations.

Talk about tapping into the powers that be inside the Beltway.

PHILADELPHIA - Boards may have grown in power since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, but mutual fund companies should take care to temper that influence so it doesn't interfere with business.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously yesterday on a proposal that would require mutual funds to provide risk/return, fee and strategy information using the same new digital data tagging system as the 500 largest U.S. corporations.

The move to XBRL filings will roll out in stages, with about 500 so-called "large" domestic and foreign issuers expected to submit XBRL versions of financial reports this winter. This is according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which last week issued a rule proposal concerning XBRL adoption.

WASHINGTON — Market participants hailed yesterday’s long-awaited but widely expected Supreme Court decision that upheld 42 states’ preferential tax treatment of their bonds as a “resounding victory” for the municipal securities market.

The mood at the Investment Company Institute's 50th Annual General Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, themed "Our Foundations, Our Future," was markedly upbeat. Certainly, this is welcome and refreshing, especially following the dot-com crash of 2000-2001, the mutual fund scandals of 2003-2005 and this year's subprime credit crisis hitting the financial services industry and Wall Street, in particular, so hard.

A lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that more than 30 firms spent in excess of $3 million over the course of three years to lure the business of Boston mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has formally proposed that all U.S. companies use interactive data tagging when they provide financial information.