Lawrence Carrel
She offered the example of the NASD and state insurance regulators issuing a joint statement in support of a new rule regulating insurance agents to only suggest suitable annuity products to their customers.
For the mutual fund industry and the U.S. markets to continue to have value, she said, more information needs to be given to investors in a timelier manner. She spoke about an NASD proposal called Profile Plus, which provides an opportunity to give investors better information at the point of sale. This program would explain fund strategies, performance costs, risks and other disclosures. Shapiro added that new products also force regulators to be proactive and not reactive. Pointing to the flood of new products for retirement-age investors, she said a sophisticated approach for investor needs would focus on exceptionally high fees, hard-to-understand risk and products targeting vulnerable populations. With the financial markets in a perpetual state of evolution, Shapiro said regulators need to learn to operate in a world without boundaries or time zones and "link arms" with fellow regulators across the world. "We will seize every opportunity we can to build a stronger market, but your help will be crucial," she told the ICI. "Mutual funds and financial markets will only have value if they can respond to transformations going in the global economy. It will be up to all of us to be alert and flexible to the world around us."
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