In early July, Poliquin backed down and didn’t introduce the amendment. His spokesman said he would continue to closely monitor the rulemaking process.
Agency disclosures show that fund companies also have been making their case in person at the SEC offices of Chair White and Commissioners Michael Piwowar and Kara Stein, who will vote on the final plan.
The visitors included officials from the ICI, BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc., MFS Investment Management and Capital Group Companies Inc., which owns American Funds, according to the disclosures.
SEC Committee
Tensions between the two sides were on display at a July 14 meeting of an SEC investor advisory committee in Washington, where arguments emerged over issues like the length of web addresses and whether investors’ home printing costs would rise if the reports were delivered online.
At one point, David Blass, ICI’s general counsel, told the panel that the association had Googled a number of people who sent the SEC comments panning the rule and found they failed to disclose that they worked in the paper industry.
The advisory committee, which helps the SEC set regulatory priorities, was also split on the issue.
“I don’t see any reason why the SEC should have spent penny one of federal money thinking about this,” said Damon Silvers, director of policy for the AFL-CIO, adding that the mutual fund lobby’s estimated $200 million annual savings was insignificant when spread out across all investors.
Depriving Investors
By his calculation, Silvers said a person with $30,000 in a 401(k) would only save 45 cents per year. That’s not enough money, he said, to risk depriving investors of information they might want.