Regulation

The SEC has fined and censured the adviser to an Internet fund for failing to file the proper Y2K forms.

KPMG LLP of New York last week saved itself and the accounting industry from the potential of a court case that could have expanded the liability of accountants who audit mutual funds.

Maryland's highest court last week dealt a setback to that state's legislature and the mutual fund industry in the ongoing fight over what makes a mutual fund director independent.

SEC officials last week outlined a rule proposal on how mutual funds should report their after-tax returns.

The SEC has denied several fund companies' requests to raise redemption fees above two percent because a hike would go beyond the costs associated with redeeming shares and would instead act as a penalty, said Cindy Fornelli, senior advisor to SEC director Paul Roye.

WASHINGTON - The regulators who oversee the mutual fund business and the lawyers who advise fund companies are battling about how far the SEC ought to go in regulating mutual fund advertisements.

WASHINGTON - Investors are not the only ones interested in hot initial public offerings.

Mutual fund companies face the prospect of a new SEC examination next year that has little to do with the agency's traditional scrutiny of securities practices and procedures.

WASHINGTON - The SEC expects to propose, this month, new rules for Form ADV, the main disclosure document that investment advisers must file with the agency, said Robert Plaze, associate director of the SEC. The SEC expects the form ultimately will be available on the Internet for investors to review, Plaze said. Plaze spoke here March 4 at an industry conference sponsored by The Practicing Law Institute of New York.

Who says the lion will never lie down with the lamb?