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Edward Jones Settles with Regulators over Secret Payments from Mutual Funds
The brokerage has agreed to pay $75 million in fines, a deal that the SEC still must approve. The agency’s enforcement department has approved it, however, according to CBS MarketWatch.
The charges stem from the company’s practice of promoting “best funds” without telling investors that it takes money from firms hoping to get on the list. The practice is allowed, but not if investors are not informed and if fund companies have used fund assets to improperly cover trading commissions, MarketWatch reported.
Separately but in a related move, California attorney general Bill Lockyer filed suit against the brokerage over the practice, according to a statement on Lockyer’s Web site. The complaint charged that seven mutual fund companies – including American Funds, Federated Investors, Goldman Sachs Group, Hartford, Lord Abbett, Putnam Investments and Van Kampen Investments – paid to get on favorable lists at the company. Lockyer alleged that Jones collected around $300 million in payments from the funds.