Most Tell SPARK They’re Ready for 22c-2

Nearly all recordkeepers say they’ll be ready for the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Rule 22c-2 deadline of April 16.

Ninety percent of retirement plan intermediaries said they will have signed Information Sharing Agreements with their largest mutual fund trading partners in time to meet the SEC deadline. About half (53%) of those intermediaries will conduct intermediary monitoring in order to facilitate compliance, according to a study by the SPARK Institute.

However, only 68% of respondents to the survey said they had signed agreements with at least one-half of their top 50 trading partners as of March 13, 2007, the Institute said in a press release. Although none of the respondents considered any of their top 10 relationships to be at risk of termination, about 10% of the intermediaries said they considered an average of 5 of their top 50 trading relationships to be at significant risk, mostly due to lack of response or agreements from certain fund companies.

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As part of that information sharing, more than two-thirds (68%) of retirement plan intermediaries will supply full Social Security numbers in their regular information reports. The rest will provide either partial Social Security numbers or a unique identifier.

84% of intermediaries will either charge a fee or will seek reimbursement for some expenses associated with Rule 22c-2 compliance.

The SEC put the finishing touches on the rule, which helps funds enforce bans against market timing and other abusive trading practices, in September 2006.

More information can be found at www.sparkinstitute.org.

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