The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Investor Advocate's first Evidence Summit, to be held Friday, will explore ways to improve the disclosure of mutual fund fees and costs, as recommended by the agency's Investor Advisory Committee, SEC Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar noted Thursday.
SEC Investor Advocate Rick Fleming said Feb. 24 that his office is launching the Policy Oriented Stakeholder and Investor Testing for Innovative and Effective Regulation (POSITIER) initiative, which will utilize surveys, focus group tests and other tools to better assess investor needs as well as the efficacy of competing rules.
Piwowar noted during his Thursday comments at the Investor Advisory Committee meeting at SEC headquarters in Washington that the "IAC's recommendations have been an invaluable source of insight and have greatly contributed to the SEC's work in recent months," including the proposed rule amendments issued by the commission on March 1 to improve investor protection and enhance transparency in the municipal securities market.
Damon Silvers, director of policy and special counsel at AFL-CIO, and an IAC member, queried Piwowar at the Thursday meeting about how the agency is handling President Donald Trump's federal hiring freeze.