The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to enhance the mutual fund and ETF disclosure regime with new investor-friendly reporting requirements.
The SEC proposed reforms that would require funds to provide investors with new “concise and visually engaging shareholder reports” that better highlight critical information for retail investors.
The new streamlined reports would provide fund investors with information on fund expenses, performance, illustrations of holdings and material fund changes, among other things.
It would also “significantly revise” the content of these reports, and encourage funds to use graphics or investor-friendly text features, among other things.
Under the proposals, investors would receive the new streamlined reports instead of both prospectus updates and shareholder reports that “can be lengthy and complex,” the SEC said.
Information not currently required, and that would not be included in the streamlined reports, would be available online and by request.
The SEC said the proposals also aim to improve fee- and expense-related information more broadly by revising advertising rules “to promote more transparent and balanced statements about investment costs.”
“By encouraging fund disclosures that use modern communication techniques to emphasize clearly and concisely the information investors find most useful, today’s proposal should facilitate better-informed decision making,” said SEC chairman, Jay Clayton, in a statement.
The proposals will be out for a 60-day public comment period following publication in the Federal Register.