Top officials of the National Association of Securities Dealers recently told securities industry executives that laws and regulations ought to put marketers of mutual funds and annuities on a level playing field.
NASD Chairman Robert Glauber and NASD Vice Chairman Mary Schapiro spoke in New York at conferences organized by the Securities Industry Association.
Marketers of products that compete with mutual funds should follow sales and disclosure rules similar to the rules that govern mutual funds, Glauber said at an SIA institutional brokerage conference.
"Investors have a right to expect a level playing field when they're examining and comparing products that are close substitutes for each other," Glauber said, according to a written version of his remarks.
Glauber said the NASD needs to start looking at fixed annuities, variable annuities and equity indexed annuities, exchange-traded funds, and some other products, such as separately managed accounts, to ensure that investors are as well-protected from abuses when they buy those products as they are when they buy mutual funds.
