SEC to Launch Sweeps of Funds’ Distribution Fees, Alternative Mutual Funds

The Securities and Exchange Commission will begin next week an exam sweep of mutual funds’ distribution fees—12b-1, Sub Transfer Agent, revenue sharing and conference fees—and later this year, a sweep of alternative mutual funds, Andrew Bowden, deputy director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, said Friday.

Speaking at the Investment Adviser Association’s compliance conference in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, Bowden said that with this targeted sweep of funds’ distribution fees, the agency would assess the amount of these payments, the services provided under them and “the interaction of the service agreements.”

Bowden told reporters after his remarks that he wasn’t sure whether the distribution fees sweep would help revive a 12b-1 rule that has languished at the agency for years.

The SEC listed examining more closely funds’ distribution fees under its top exam priorities for 2013, calling it ”payments for distribution in guise.”

The regulator said it would assess “whether such payments are made in compliance with regulations, including Investment Company Act Rule 12b-1, or whether they are instead payments for distribution and preferential treatment.”