Compliance

Recommendations outlined in the Securities and Exchange Commission's April 30 valuation letter will create logistical challenges for small- and mid-sized fund companies and raise questions as to when fund boards should use fair value pricing, according to industry lawyers and observers.

The Internal Revenue Service has denied the request of the Investment Company Institute of Washington, D.C. to include the tax treatment of fund launch costs in its 2001 Priority Guidance Plan to finally resolve the issue. The ICI still hopes the issue will be considered this year, but it is clear that since the IRS left it out of its business plan, it is not one of its top priorities.

Efforts on the part of the Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. to develop an exchange-traded share class may have been defeated last week after a U.S. District Court decision prohibited Vanguard from offering the new share class using its S&P index funds, according to industry observers.

NASD Regulation, the regulatory arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers of Washington, D.C., announced last week that it had censured and fined asset manager Stifel, Nicolaus & Company of St. Louis and two individuals in connection with the illegitimate sale of class B mutual fund shares.

The fund industry is concerned that evolving interpretations of the act which authorizes the use of electronic signatures in commerce will inhibit the mutual fund industry's use of the Internet. The Investment Company Institute outlined its concerns in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission last month.

A lawsuit filed April 2 in a Delaware state court could decide if a closed-end fund's board of directors acted properly in setting strict guidelines as to who qualifies for nomination as a fund board director, or if the guidelines were established to thwart shareholder activism and impede investors' rights.

President Bush's budget proposal for fiscal year 2002 proposes staff reductions in several areas of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the office of investment management which oversees mutual funds, according to an SEC document.

The first wave of privacy disclosures are appearing in mutual fund prospectuses and first quarter 2000 account statements being mailed to fund investors.

The Investment Company Institute of Washington D.C. has taken the unusual step of submitting a follow up letter to an earlier request that the Securities and Exchange Commission regulate portfolio products like mutual funds.

Laura Unger, acting chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced in a speech before the Philadelphia Bar Association late last month that the SEC's staff is working on an interpretive bulletin which will emphasize that technical compliance with Rule 482, the advertising rule, will not protect firms from charges of fraud. Unger said the bulletin will also point out that it may be necessary to provide investors with additional facts, which give investors an accurate picture of a fund's performance in order to avoid running afoul of anti-fraud provisions.

KPMG of New York resigned as independent auditor for AIM Funds of Houston last December after the accounting firm discovered it was in violation of auditor independence rules, according to a Security and Exchange Commission filing submitted March 27 by AIM.

A fund's sub-adviser can open new distribution channels, provide investment expertise, lend name recognition and, in some cases, create a conflict of interest, according to industry lawyers and observers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two class action suits involving the use of proprietary funds with in-house pension plans have opened the door for class action lawyers who are likely to go after other mutual fund companies, according to industry lawyers.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It has been over nine months since E-SIGN, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, was signed into law, but there remains some uncertainty with regard to how the act governs certain aspects of electronic delivery of retirement products and services, according to industry executives.

The Security and Exchange Commission has proposed changes to rules which govern electronic record keeping.

A decision was overturned earlier this month in the lawsuit Green v. Fund Asset Management, in which shareholders in seven Merrill Lynch funds have sued the company for engaging in fraud with regard to management fees.

Paul G. Murphy, a former vice president of Putnam Investments of Boston, was convicted of one count of conspiracy for his part in aiding another Putnam employee in illegally wire transferring $78,909 from an internal Putnam account to another account at the Vanguard Group in Malvern, Pa. in October of 1999, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's office.

A U.S. District Court order issued late last month placing three of the high-yield municipal bond funds of the Heartland Group of Milwaukee in receivership probably will lead to liquidation of the funds. But it may also be a prelude to new guidance and regulation on fund valuation procedures, according to industry analysts and lawyers.

The Dreyfus Corporation of New York has tentatively agreed to pay $20.5 million to settle a federal class action lawsuit and a state lawsuit which were brought against the fund company in the summer of 1998 by investors in two Dreyfus mutual funds.

A Securities and Exchange Commission rule initiative that was strongly criticized by consumer groups several years ago when it was first suggested has reappeared on the SEC's docket as part of an impending rule proposal expected by June 28.