(December 12 – 17:00 ET) – The Securities Industry Association in the United States is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission not to adopt dollar-specific mutual fund fee disclosure.

The SIA is lobbying the SEC in response to a recommendation by the U.S. General Accounting Office to require mutual funds to report to unitholders the dollar amount of fund expenses that are attributed to the individual investor.

The SIA says that it is favour of good disclosure, but it insists that the GAO’s recommendation is problematic for a number of reasons. The association argues that: the recommendation is based on erroneous reasoning; the cost of reporting the data would be huge and the benefit to investors minimal; the existing disclosure regime is good enough.

“Given [the] extensive disclosure about fees and other expenses and the strictly mandated presentation of mutual fund performance, we believe that additional disclosure recommended by the GAO is unnecessary.” It says that if the SEC concludes that the current disclosure regime needs to be improved or replaced, it should look for an alternative to dollar-specific disclosure.
-IE Staff