Fidelity Investments is facing more scrutiny over fees it charges some mutual funds for using its platform to access retirement plan customers, Bloomberg News reported. The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth said its securities division sent a letter on Feb. 27 to Boston-based Fidelity requesting information about those fees. The inquiry follows a Feb. 21 lawsuit against Fidelity by an investor in T-Mobile USA Inc.’s 401(k) plan that claims the firm conceals so-called infrastructure fees. The fees are also being probed by the U.S. Labor Department, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> reported last week. The state securities division is overseen by Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, who has played a key role in policing the mutual fund and securities industries. In 2002, along with then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, his office was a linchpin in probing whether Wall Street firms misled investors with biased investment research. In an agreement with state, federal and industry groups several firms agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle such claims. Fidelity wasn’t involved in that case. Fidelity had $2.4 trillion in assets under management as of Dec. 31.
