Compliance

John Clifton Bogle is not only the founder of Vanguard but also the pioneer of the first no-load and the first index mutual fund. After stepping down as senior chairman of The Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. last December, Bogle became president of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center, a think-tank at Vanguard headquarters.

WASHINGTON - The SEC will adopt a rule by year-end requiring a fund's name reflect at least 80 percent of its holdings, Paul Roye, director of the SEC's division of investment management, told a symposium here Oct. 12.

In spite of requests to delay the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, the Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed at press time that it would take effect on Oct. 23.

WASHINGTON D.C. - The prevailing industry stance that more frequent disclosure of fund holdings would only confuse investors is hurting the industry's reputation, according to several analysts and industry executives who spoke at a conference here last week on fund disclosure.

TORONTO - Currently, there is no standardized fund regulation in Canada and many fund complexes are structured as trusts, overseen by trustees, who use an advisory regulatory model. The advisory board offers guidance but has no decision-making authority over the fund complex. Altamira and Royal Mutual Funds currently use this model.

Mutual fund companies and other investment firms are not prepared for the SEC's forthcoming "T+1" requirement that they clear and settle trades within one day of the initial trade, fund industry executives said.

washington, d.c. - Although it is a vital part of the Investment Company Act of 1940, section 17, which prohibits transactions between affiliates, should be revised in order to allow greater efficiencies in the operations of mutual funds, according to fund executives.

The Money Management Institute of Washington D.C. has taken exception to the Investment Company Institute's request that the SEC re-examine a rule that grants managed accounts an exemption to the Investment Company Act of 1940, according to a memorandum the Institute sent to its membership Aug. 29.

Two of the U.S.-domiciled funds of Julius Baer Group of Zurich will be among the first bank-sponsored mutual funds to register as investment advisers with the SEC as a result of new requirements in the Financial Modernization Act, according to SEC filings.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt last month said the SEC would produce the "hard" evidence of auditing problems that Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, called for to justify the commission's proposed independent auditor rules.

Washington, D.C. - The SEC should consider regulating products like separate accounts and hedge funds under the Investment Company Act of 1940 because they are increasingly available to the average investor who perceives them as a type of mutual fund, according to industry leaders.

The SEC will not aggressively enforce the recently adopted Rule FD, or fair disclosure rule and will only prosecute those cases that are clearly in violation of the rule, said Steve Cutler, a deputy director for the SEC's division of enforcement.

CHICAGO - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is not likely to back down on its pending controversial after-tax performance requirement. This was the impression that Susan Nash, the SEC's associate director of the division of investment management, gave at the Investment Company Institute's tax and accounting conference here last week.

CHICAGO - The SEC will be focusing on issues concerning independent directors, a new audit guide, a two percent decrease in capital gains taxes, international SEC examinations and proper valuation, according to SEC officials and industry executives at the ICI tax and accounting conference here last week.

The president of the $105 million closed-end Mentor Income Fund, turned up the heat on a simmering proxy battle

The SEC adopted new rules last week regarding the electronic filing of form ADV that will require all advisers to begin filing Part I of the form electronically by January 2001, the commission announced.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's recent Fair Disclosure Regulation has prompted U.S. fund managers to demand more accurate reporting from European companies, according to a study of U.S. fund managers by Broadgate Consultants of New York.

Founders Asset Management of Denver, adviser to the 11 Dreyfus Founders Funds, has fined tuned its Code of Ethics which governs when and how employees may make personal securities trades. The disclosure was made in a prospectus amendment filed with the SEC Sept. 1.

Churning abuses by broker/dealers usually involve variable annuities or other insurance products, which is why industry attorneys were surprised when the SEC announced last week that it had fined Dean Witter Reynolds, now part of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of New York, nearly half a million dollars for failing to prevent mutual fund churning by one of the firm's Atlanta brokers.

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House in June that would lower the capital gains taxes investors involuntarily incur as a result of the distributions made within fund portfolios, has received varying reviews from representatives and executives of the mutual fund and annuity industries. The advantages the measure would give the mutual fund industry could drive a wedge between it and the annuities industry.