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This page was last updated on January 2, 2001. Articles by Fund Democracy: Archives SEC's Push for Disclosure Often Stops at Its Front Door, TheStreet.com (Dec. 21, 2000) Abstract: The SEC has made great progress in breaking Wall Street's stranglehold on public market information by forcing fair disclosure to all investors. In October, it adopted landmark rules, known as Regulation FD (for fair disclosure), that prohibit companies from selectively disclosing information to Wall Street analysts before making it publicly available to all investors. When it comes to its own regulatory agenda, however, the SEC takes a less democratic view of fair and equal access to information. Indeed, the SEC staff's participation in a recent Investment Company Institute conference that was off-limits to the press reflects a pattern of keeping important aspects of the lawmaking process from public view. Unbeknownst to much of the investing public, the SEC has broad authority to grant mutual funds and financial services firms a free pass from mutual fund rules. The industry knows this all too well, and it relentlessly barrages the SEC staff with formal and informal demands to permit transactions and procedures that would be illegal under the law as written. (View the full text of this article.) |