Regulators are not just targeting those in cahoots with market timers. Now, any firm that failed to do enough to keep the wolves out of the pen is fair game.

The SEC's top regulators have chastised mutual funds. State regulators have fired harsh salvos at them. And to put it quite mildly, the national press has gone to town.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced last Monday that it would pour $37 million to reform and educate employees on corporate governance. The funding is, in part, forced by a December settlement with federal regulators stemming from its links to the blown-up accounting practices at Enron.

Regulators have gone straight for the throat of FleetBoston, charging two of the company's Columbia units with orchestrating a "massive" market timing scheme and seeking to enjoin Columbia Advisors from serving as advisor to its own mutual funds.

The head of the world's No. 1 mutual fund company said last Tuesday that forcing firms to hire independent chairmen might not be the end-all solution to fixing problems in the industry.

James T. McCurdy, a 23-year veteran mutual fund auditor who was recently sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission and given a one-year "time out" from the industry, has vowed to appeal that decision to the SEC's Commissioners, and will file for a stay of that penalty.

Understanding mutual fund statements should be a heck of a lot easier now that federal regulators have okayed new disclosure rules that would spell out more clearly the fees imposed on shareholders.

Fifteen brokerages settled with the SEC and NASD for $21.5 million for not providing customers with $86 million worth of breakpoint discounts they were owed. The deal, struck earlier this month, also requires the firms to repay investors what they are owed.

Registering with the SEC should not be a requirement of hedge funds, at least not in the mind of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Robert Pozen, Massachusetts Financial Services' newest chairman, says the punishment doesn't fit the crime at his new firm.

Three U.S. Senators introduced new legislation last week aimed at reforming the $7.4 trillion mutual fund industry. The Mutual Fund Reform Act of 2004 would not only stamp out abusive trading practices but also overhaul the hidden fee structure imposed on shareholders.

Franklin Resources last week said that improper trading of its mutual fund shares were isolated incidents that do not reflect widespread company abuses and didn't harm long-term shareholders.

President Bush proposed last Monday a $913 million budget for the Securities and Exchange Commission, one that would represent a 13% increase in available funds for the regulatory agency.

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.