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Secretary Jonathan G. Katz Dear Secretary G. Katz, As an investor, I am enraged by the mutual fund scandals that are flooding Wall Street today. Millions of Americans like me rely on mutual funds to pay for our pensions, our children's college funds, and grow our hard-earned savings. I am writing to comment on the Commission's proposed rule to require broker-dealers to disclose more information about costs and conflicts of interest to investors who purchase or sell interests in mutual funds (File No S7-06-04). Every day, I read a story in the newspaper about a new mutual fund scandal. So I'm pleased that the SEC is taking a step forward to carry out its responsibility to safeguard the savings of small investors. After all, it is the SEC's job to prevent the current situation from mushrooming, and protect the public from the Wall Street insiders. I support your proposed amendment that would prohibit mutual funds from directing commissions from their portfolio brokerage transactions to broker-dealers to compensate them for distributing fund shares. I oppose ANY watering down of this prohibition because of the huge positive impact it could have on me and other small investors. I also strongly support individualized dollar cost disclosures that should be provided in the quarterly or annual account statements that show the shareholder's account balance and transaction activity. Putting cost information in dollar amounts side-by-side with information on the fund's gains or losses for the year is key to helping investors put those costs into perspective. I urge you to use this opportunity to continue strengthening your disciplining of the mutual funds industry by providing transparent disclosure, meaningful price competition, and regulatory policing of the worst abuses. It is about time that the mutual fund industry is held accountable! Therefore, I also urge the SEC to insist that the mutual fund industry RETURN THE MONEY taken from investors like me by these abusive practices and punish the companies and individuals responsible for this fraud on the American investing public. To restore honesty and integrity to the financial services industry, any broker who has committed these abusive practices should be stripped of his or her license. In doing so, you will help restore the trust of millions of investors like me. Thank you for accepting my comments. Sincerely, Mobeen Shirazi cc: SEC Chairman William Donaldson |