Securities regulators plan to pare back Obama-era requirements that would require mutual funds to tell shareholders about large holdings of hard-to-sell assets, in what would be a significant concession to the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Securities and Exchange Commission had planned to propose rolling back the disclosures, set to go into effect in 2019, on Wednesday. But it postponed the action because commissioners have splintered over the scope of the rollback. The SEC said in a notice posted yesterday that it anticipates holding a vote in the future. The SEC finished the measure toward the end of the Obama presidency, following the meltdown of a $789 million mutual fund with a high concentration of holdings in junk bonds and distressed debt. The SEC is preparing to allow funds to keep private their quarterly estimates of how much of their portfolio includes hard-to-sell debt or other securities. The data would still have to be shared with regulators.
