Regulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission is apparently close to starting a review of fund rules. However many industry observers are unsure which rules might be affected, and how fund marketing might be affected in turn.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's caseload was decimated by the terrorist attack on the World Trader Center, the home of its New York offices.

Prudential Financial has appointed Scott Sleyster, the president of its guaranteed products unit, to head the company's retirement services business.

Harvey Pitt has not even been formally sworn in as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, yet already some industry observers are concerned that mutual funds may take a back seat once he takes the wheel.

A House subcommittee approved the Retirement Security Advice Act Thursday afternoon, prompting its proponents to insist that the House will pass it by year's end. It was the quickest markup of a bill in the history of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, lasting a short six minutes. But brewing far from the corridors of those meeting halls is an opposition that hopes for the bill's demise in the Senate.

The reason behind the recent proposal of the New York Stock Exchange to limit how much investment companies can pay in closed-end listing fees is not clear, but chances are it's not out of kindness.

The Investment Company Institute's call last week for less portfolio holdings disclosure is probably the best indication that the Securities and Exchange Commission is getting ready to increase disclosure requirements, according to industry observers.

This year's Morningstar conference began with the issuance of a challenge to the fund industry by Morningstar managing director Don Phillips to improve investors' experience with mutual funds.

Hearings are expected to commence soon on a new bill that would allow retirement plan providers to offer advisory services to plan participants, something that is largely prohibited now. Representative John Boehner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced the bill, called the Retirement Security Advice Act, last month.

An NASDR arbitration panel has ruled against Franklin Templeton of San Mateo, Calif. in an arbitration case filed in 1999 against the fund adviser by Daniel Calabria, a former fund executive.