The world’s biggest investment firms are set to get much tougher rules for naming funds, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission clamps down on labels it says can be misleading.
The regulations, which the SEC will vote on during a meeting Wednesday in Washington, would be its most sweeping overhaul for fund-labeling regulations in more than two decades. Backers say the measures in particular will help rein in overblown claims about environmental, social or governance investments.
The SEC during the Biden administration has grown increasingly concerned that funds billboard certain buzzwords to attract investors, even if they don’t accurately reflect their actual strategies. One focus has been on a lack of consistent standards for investments that claim to be sustainable, with the ESG label slapped on everything from exchange-traded funds to complex derivatives.
The new SEC rules would apply to funds with trillions of dollars in assets combined. In addition to ESG, they would impact thematic investment strategies with labels like “growth” or “value.” The agency also would bolster its long-existing requirements that a fund generally invest 80% of its assets in line with the stated focus.
The fund industry has for more than two decades had to comply with that SEC regulation known as the Names Rule, and has argued the changes the agency proposed last year go too far.
Read More: SEC to Crack Down on Misleading ESG Claims With Fund Rules
The new regulations would require funds to review portfolios relative to the 80% threshold each quarter, and generally get 90 days to come back in compliance if they temporarily deviate. The SEC rule also will require that names suggesting an investment focus be clearly understandable.
Additionally, funds with an 80% investment strategy will have to define for investors the terms used in its name, and spell out the strategy they entail. Funds also will have additional record-keeping requirements.
Read More: SEC Planned Crackdown on ‘Misleading’ Funds Goes Far Beyond ESG
Separate from the rules overhaul, the SEC brought cases against some of Wall Street’s best-known firms last year related to their fund labeling.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to pay $4 million to settle claims that its asset-management unit didn’t properly weigh ESG factors in some of its investment products. A Bank of New York Mellon Corp. unit agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that it falsely implied some mutual funds had undergone an ESG quality review.
If a majority of the five commissioners approve the new rules, they will be enacted after a phase-in period.
--With assistance from Austin Weinstein and Silla Brush.