Administration March 23, 2007

Retirement Plan Intermediaries Nearly Geared up for 22c-2

March 23, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - 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 Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Rule 22c-2 deadline of April 16, according to the SPARK Institute.
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However, only 68% of respondents to the SPARK 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. While 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.

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 (See SEC Gives Final Passage to 22c-2 Changes ).

Other findings from the survey reported in the release include:

  • About 94% of retirement plan intermediaries will offer information sharing in order to facilitate compliance with Rule 22c-2 and about half (53%) of those intermediaries will conduct intermediary monitoring in order to facilitate compliance.
  • 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.

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

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