Industry Group Nixes OpenFund's Push for More Frequent Disclosure

When Dave Nadig, comanager of the maverick (OPENX Quote)OpenFund, spoke before a panel of top mutual-fund company lawyers in Washington on Tuesday, warm fuzzies were in short supply.

Nadig asked the Rules Committee of the Investment Company Institute, the mutual-fund industry's trade group, to amend its "Best Practices" recommendations to call for more frequent disclosure of fund holdings than the current twice-a-year minimum. His pitch -- monthly or quarterly disclosure of complete fund holdings, with no more than a one-month lag time -- was about as well received as Kelsey Grammar's Macbeth.

"After my impassioned five-minute plea, the committee opened it up for comment and there was a dead silence for about 30 seconds," said Nadig, whose fund discloses its holdings in real time on its Web site. "Finally people started commenting. They were overwhelmingly defensive of the status quo." The most vociferous members of the committee were representatives from bigger firms, he said. After a few minutes of discussion, the issue was dropped without recommendation for further review. ...