Compliance

Another casualty was added to the growing list of mutual fund criminals last Tuesday as a New York bank executive was hauled off in handcuffs for allegedly arranging $1 billion in financing for illegal mutual fund trades.

The SEC's Dec. 11, 2003 proposal to end forward-pricing end runs around the 4 p.m. hard NAV close, has raised criticism from 401(k) plan sponsors, investors and administrators.

Fidelity Investments might soon lose $475 million in assets that it runs for the Massachusetts state pension fund, Fidelity confirmed last week.

Six financial services companies, including UBS AG and Wachovia Corp., have reportedly agreed to settle SEC allegations that their brokers failed to give promised mutual fund discounts.

U.S. Bancorp Asset Management last week indicated in an SEC filing it is cooperating with the SEC on an informal inquiry into trading activity in the First American Small Cap Growth Opportunities fund. Spokespeople for the company did not return phone calls seeking comment.

NEW YORK -- Donald A. Yacktman, the president and chief investment officer of Yacktman Asset Management in Buffalo Grove, Ill., is no stranger to heated boardroom battles, and as the great bull run of the 1990s was reaching its heights, he made headlines as a result.

To avert any potential scandals like those that have plagued equity analysts, the Bond Market Association has drafted its own guidelines for independent fixed income research. And these are slated for discussion this Friday at a BMA-sponsored Asset Managers Forum in New York.

OXFORD, Miss. -- The mutual fund fee bill is in the mail. And it should spell out, in hard dollars and cents, all the hidden costs of mutual funds, including 12b-1 fees. And these total costs can be so significant that in some cases they are several times greater than the fund's stated expense ratio.

Separately managed account pioneer Frank Campanale doesn't see any outstanding areas where regulators might swoop in and shake up the industry's foundation like in the mutual fund arena - but thinks there is a small window that might draw scrutiny.

Jack Bogle is in demand. Senators want his opinion. The best legal minds in the industry, including ICI Chairman Paul Haaga, are sparring with him (see mutual fund summit story, page one).

NEW YORK -- Emphasizing the increased role of state attorney generals in criminal enforcement, Eliot Spitzer distinguished between recent financial services industry scandals to a packed criminal justice section of the New York State Bar Association lawyers last Thursday.

The million-dollar question of how much Putnam Investments paid to the SEC and other regulators in its settlement was answered last week - and it turned out to be a $24 million question.

WASHINGTON- Excessive fees and inadequate disclosure represent far more serious threats to mutual fund shareholders than the trading abuses uncovered in recent months and will require more stringent legislation to remedy them. And it's time to take the bull by the horns.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last Tuesday put forth the details of its code of ethics proposal for mutual funds, as part of a three-pronged approach to improve corporate governance and disclosure in the $7 trillion industry. (See code of ethics details, page 13.)

The best of intentions sometimes go awry. But, despite the 12b-1 rule's departure from its original spirit, dismantling the rule is not a viable option, research firm Lipper concludes in a recently released study.

Wielding their $1 trillion clout, state pension leaders and treasurers partnered with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently to tear into the SEC's proposed fund reforms.

SEC Chairman William Donaldson said last Tuesday the agency will seek the opinions of the nation's 91 million mutual fund investors over the next 60 days on what the ideal point-of-sale and trade-confirmation reports should look like for broker-sold funds.

The umpire strikes back. Investors are finally getting the right calls, as regulators have unveiled a series of aggressive steps to improve fund governance and eliminate hidden fees charged to shareholders.

If it is true that politics makes strange bedfellows, then financial services scandals make for even more curious divorces.

FleetBoston said on Thursday that two of its subsidiaries received a Wells notice from the SEC, indicating the agency's regional Boston office had recommended enforcement action against the firm for shirking its fiduciary duties.