At the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), NASD convened and led a Joint NASD/Industry Breakpoint Task Force, with representatives from, among others, Investment Company Institute ("ICI"), Securities Industry Association ("SIA"), National Security Clearing Corporation ("NSCC"), broker/dealers, mutual funds, and transfer agents, to examine the difficulties that the financial industry experienced delivering breakpoint discounts on Class A mutual fund share sales and to develop recommendations to facilitate the complete and accurate delivery of breakpoint discounts in the future.
Reports & Studies
In a letter to NASD Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert R. Glauber, dated January 15, 2003, former Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chairman Harvey L. Pitt requested that NASD, joined by the Securities Industry Association (“SIA”) and the Investment Company Institute (“ICI”), convene a task force to recommend industry-wide changes to address errors and missed opportunities to provide discounts in the calculation of sales loads charged on the purchase of mutual fund shares that carry a front-end sales load.
Fairness, integrity and efficiency make the U.S. capital markets the most successful in the world. In the past decade, more than 5,600 domestic and foreign enterprises raised an aggregate of over $500 billion through IPOs in U.S. markets. These IPOs served as an engine for corporate growth and active participation by all sectors of the investment community, from venture capitalists to large institutions and individual investors.
The Global Settlement followed joint investigations by the regulators into alleged conflicts of interest between investment banking and securities research at brokerage firms.