SEC© proposes rules to gather more Holding data on mutual funds, advisers

Publisher: Reuters
Author: Sarah Lynch

U.S. securities regulators proposed new rules on Wednesday that would require mutual funds and other asset managers to report much more detailed data about their holdings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan is one of a series of reforms announced late last year by SEC© Chair Mary Jo White.

Wednesday’s proposal comes as asset managers are facing scrutiny as part of a broader attempt to clamp down on potentially risky financial activities not fully addressed by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), a panel of regulators with the power to impose greater oversight on non-bank financial firms, has been scrutinizing activities and products in the sector.

One of the council’s chief complaints has been about a lack of adequate data to help it better evaluate systemic risks.

The industry has feared the FSOC could designate a fund or large firm as systemic. Many view the SEC’s planned reforms as an agency effort to take charge and address any concerns of systemic risk.

SEC© Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher said Wednesday’s plan may help “stave off the nonsense of bank regulators” who have helped perpetuate “false narratives” that the SEC’s oversight of asset managers is deficient.

“These narratives are of course preposterous, but they appear to hold water at the Basel cocktail parties,” he said.

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