Besides delivering a rule proposal to the commission on advice standards, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investment management division plans to finalize rules on exchange-traded funds and fund of funds this year, according to IM director Dalia Blass.
On Monday at the Investment Company Institute’s Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference in San Diego, Blass stated that the agency’s “modernization efforts” in 2019 will “be built on the foundations we laid in 2018.”
“Finalizing the ETF and fund of funds rules will be a high priority for the division,” Blass said.
The SEC proposed a new rule under the Investment Company Act of 1940 last June that would permit ETFs that satisfy certain conditions to operate without the expense and delay of obtaining an exemptive order.
The plan updates and attempts to streamline 26 years of ETF approvals by the agency through hundreds of exemptive orders.
Blass also said the IM division continues to study the comments on the variable annuity disclosure proposal, with some “preliminary areas of focus” being exploring options for a summary shareholder report and ways to improve fee and risk disclosures.