Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, with approximately 95 million investors and $7 trillion in assets, mutual funds constitute a major component of our securities industry. Mutual funds became a dominant force in our capital markets because they have democratized investing for millions of average Americans, greatly facilitating their ability to acquire a diversified portfolio. Before September, many authorities and experts had also generally extolled the reliability and integrity of the industry. During the last 2 months, however, we have learned of alleged and actual instances of wrongdoing at more than a dozen mutual fund families with more than $2.5 trillion in assets under management. The most serious transgressions brought to light so far have involved market timing abuses, late trading, and preferential portfolio disclosures to industry insiders. The current evidence also suggests that additional announcements of misconduct in the mutual fund industry will continue to proliferate in the months ahead. A recent survey by the Securities and Exchange Commission found that 30 percent of responding broker-dealers assisted market timers in some way.”