Regulation

At the Securities and Exchange Commission's meeting on April 17 and 18 in Washington, D.C., open only to chief compliance officers, SEC chief examiner Gene Gohlke announced that mutual funds can now add forensic testing to their SEC exam checklist of funds' own annual internal compliance reviews.

NEW YORK - As the world economy becomes increasingly connected, communicating important financial information, such as income statements, cash flow, balance sheets and mutual fund returns, would be all but impossible without a common language.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced the distribution of $30.6 million to more than 250,000 investors affected by market timing by RS Investments.

WASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met in private with top lenders and servicers this week to warn them the housing market is continuing to deteriorate and press them for a new solution, several sources said Thursday.

Two ranking Congressmen sent the Securities and Exchange Commission a letter yesterday, urging Chairman Christopher Cox to cut a break on redemptions on auction-rate securities for mutual fund portfolio managers and their supporting operational and compliance teams. The Congressmen pointed to illiquidity and hard-to-price conditions for auction rates today.

Fines Continue to be Levied on Fund Companies for Market Timing & Late Trading, With a Renewed Focus on U.K. Orders

In a lawsuit stunning for giving renewed life to the revenue-sharing scandals and for extending the period certain through 2006, Wells Fargo has been hit with a class-action lawsuit for allegedly sharing mutual fund revenue with brokers and other selling agents, without informing shareholders and through excessively high fees.

Senate Democrats in Connecticut are pushing for a state-sponsored 401(k) retirement plan for small businesses, designed for employers who can’t afford to offer a retirement plan to their workers.

A number of news events in the past week alone indicate without question the U.S. economy is at a dangerous inflection point, but so far, no one-no economist, analyst, fund manager, regulator, legistator, president or CEO-is willing to put together the pieces to talk about something other than snapshot first-quarter, year-over-year or historical trendline data that make a case for the return of the markets.

John Paulson, founder of the hedge fund Paulson & Company, made an unprecedented $3.7 billion last year by betting against subprime mortgages and the financial products that held them.