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SEC Staff Report Identifies Issues with Execution-Quality Reports
A recently released report from the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets reviews issues of stop orders, payments for order flow, and execution quality reports. The report, prepared for a recent...
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Considerations for Board Candidates
David Katz, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, suggests that board candidates “have much to consider.” While Katz’s advice is targeted to public company directors, many of his insights...
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McNabb: Stop Launching ETFs
At a recent ETF conference, Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb recently called on his competitors to stop launching so many ETFs. McNabb suggested that a new ETF launches “it feels like, every 30 seconds” and...
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Fund Managers Race to Bottom on Expense Ratios
A Wall Street Journal article highlights the trend of decreasing fees in mutual funds. The article notes that BlackRock, Charles Schwab, and Vanguard moved at the end of 2015 to cut annual expenses at...
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IMF: Lurking Issue in Bond Fund use of Derivatives
The IMF suggests that limited disclosure by funds about the risks of derivatives has left “investors and policymakers in the dark on a key issue for financial stability.” In a recent blog post, the...
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President Shows Support for SEC, CFTC
Under President Obama’s recently released fiscal 2017 budget, the SEC would see an 11 percent increase to $1.8 billion. The CFTC would see a 32 percent increase to $330 million. The increases are part...
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MFDF Webinar: Crisis Planning - A Case Study
During one week in August 2015, a major disruption of a fund accounting system impacted the ability of some funds to strike their NAV. The events of that week and the role of crisis management during...
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Judge Questions FSOC Structure, Process in MetLife Challenge
In a recent hearing in MetLife’s challenge to its FSOC systemically important financial institution designation, Judge Rosemary Collyer raised several issues critical of the FSOC. According to Reuters,...
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BlackRock Offers Regulatory Solutions Based on Third Avenue Focused Credit...
Representatives from BlackRock met with SEC staff at the end of January regarding the SEC’s proposal on liquidity risk management and swing pricing. However, accompanying the typically sparse memo...
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Will the New SEC Proposals Drive Investors to Riskier Products?
A recent article from Bloomberg suggests that the SEC’s recent liquidity and derivatives proposals could cause investor assets to flow into riskier products. According to Dave Nadig, Director of ETFs...
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NY Fed Economists: Unlevered Funds Subject to Run Risk
A new blog post from economists at the New York Federal Reserve challenges the “conventional wisdom” that “an open-ended investment fund that has a floating net asset value (NAV) and no leverage will...
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White: Work on Fiduciary Rule Continues
Last week, SEC Chair Mary White said that the Commission “will continue to work to develop support from my fellow commissioners for a uniform fiduciary duty for investment advisers and broker-dealers,...
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Stein: Holistic Review Needed for ETFs
SEC Commissioner Kara Stein worried in a recent speech that increasing complexity of ETFs “makes understanding such products difficult for the average investor.” Stein highlighted the strong growth in...
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Mixed Results Among Active Funds Using ETFs
A new paper examines the use of ETFs by actively managed funds and finds mixed results based on the degree of use. The paper notes that 24 percent of actively managed funds held ETFs in 2014, up from...
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MFDF Webinar: Board Oversight of Intermediary Payments: SEC Guidance
The SEC’s recent release of guidance on fund distribution and sub-accounting fees updates prior guidance dating from 1998. Join Nathan Greene of Shearman & Sterling tomorrow at 2pm to discuss the...
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Report: Mutual Funds “Rubber Stamp” Excessive CEO Compensation
A new report takes mutual funds to task for “rubber stamping” executive pay plans through “say-on-pay” votes that the report claims amounts to “excessive wealth unrelated to incentives or results.” The...
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MFDF Webinar: Understanding Securities Markets - An Overview of Trading Venues
Recent years have seen a proliferation of new trading venues where mutual funds execute their portfolio transactions. Tomorrow at 2pm, join Jim Burns, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher and...
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Northstar Claims Precluded by Federal Law
In the latest chapter in Northstar Financial Advisers v. Schwab Investments, a district court last week ruled that the plaintiff’s claims are precluded by federal law. The complaint, originally filed...
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SEC Issues Wells Notice Over Distribution Payments
In a recent filing, William Blair announced that it had received a Wells notice from the SEC regarding shareholder administration fees paid by ten of its funds. A Wells notice from the SEC is not a...
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Fed Economist, ICI Debate High-Yield Spillover Effects
A new post from economists at the New York Fed seeks to identify funds vulnerable to runs and to assess the potential spillover effects to other funds if a run occurred. The authors identified the most...
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