The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is boosting portfolio reporting requirements for investment funds, sparking concern from the fund industry.
The SEC will soon require registered investment companies — including both open and closed-end funds, as well as ETFs that are organized as unit investment trusts — to move to monthly reporting from quarterly. Further, more of the information in these reports will become publicly available.
The stepped-up reporting demands are intended to provide both regulators and investors with more information about funds’ portfolio holdings and risks. The SEC noted that it uses the funds’ filings to “monitor industry trends, identify risks, inform policy and rulemaking, and assist commission staff in [compliance] examination and enforcement efforts.”
“These amendments will benefit investors through greater transparency of funds’ investment portfolios and improve the commission’s oversight of the asset management industry,” said SEC chair, Gary Gensler, in a release.
The changes continue to spark objections from the fund industry.
The Investment Company Institute (ICI), an industry trade group, “has raised serious concerns about moving portfolio holdings disclosure … from quarterly to monthly, as this will open fund managers to a greater risk of predatory trading that will harm fund shareholders, without any corresponding benefit,” said Eric Pan, president and CEO of ICI, in a statement.
“ICI has also questioned the SEC’s requirement to have funds file these holdings within 30 days of month end given the volume of information required and the SEC’s history of data security breaches,” he added.
“Additionally, the commission continues to give little consideration to the disproportionate burden of its rulemaking on smaller fund complexes,” Pan said. “The SEC should have re-proposed the new reporting requirements to ensure adequate public comment on these concerns.”
Alongside the reporting revisions, the SEC adopted amendments to open-ended funds’ liquidity risk reporting requirements, and introduced new guidance on funds’ liquidity risk management program requirements.
Pan said ICI will review the SEC’s new guidance “to understand how it will impact funds and their shareholders.”
“It is important to note that funds currently have robust liquidity risk management programs as a matter of practice and existing regulatory requirements,” he added.
The new requirements take effect Nov. 17, 2025, and smaller funds will have until May 18, 2026, to comply with the reporting changes.