Reuters via Forbes: “US pension relief waits while proposals clarified:”
Relief for U.S. companies struggling to fund traditional pensions was put on a slower track on Thursday as congressional negotiators met and asked staff to clarify the background of rival proposals over the next 10 days . . .Rep. John Boehner, who chairs the negotiating committee of House and Senate lawmakers, said staffers had been asked to outline by March 22 the reasons for various provisions, particularly those allowing multi-employer plans to stretch out contributions to their plans.
The Miami Herald: “Airline pension plans undergo panel scrutiny:”
The sticking point remains whether companies with dramatically underfunded plans, such as bankrupt United Airlines Inc., will get a break on large “catch-up” payments required under current law. The Senate version of the pension bill would give airlines and steel companies billions of dollars in short-term relief.
The Associated Press via the Mercury News: “Companies File Reports on Pension Plans:”
A new rule that kicked in this month requires any company with a traditional retirement plan to file reports on its pension investment strategy. . . The new data offer an intriguing peek under the hood for investors, economists, analysts, lenders and others who track companies and markets. “Pension assets represent an enormous amount of money, and these new disclosures are giving the public a better handle on how companies are managing them,” said Howard Silverblatt, an equities analyst and ratings agency Standard and Poor’s. S&P is tracking the new disclosures and plans to publish a report on them soon.
The Seattle Times: “Mutual funds flash big numbers, but they’re not telling whole story:”
[G]ive fund companies one good year and the marketing guys will go into overdrive. . . Any fund that is willing to show off its most recent year of performance should also have to graphically show its worst 12-month run ever.
The Mercury News: “SEC proposes new regulations related to mutual fund disclosures:”
Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 5-0 at a public meeting to propose new requirements for fund companies to disclose the identities of members of portfolio management teams as well as their compensation and whether they own shares in the funds they manage.The SEC commissioners also adopted new requirements for the special reports that companies must file with the agency to disclose significant developments. The changes shorten the time period in which the reports must be submitted and add new developments that will trigger a report, including a restatement of earnings and the sort of off-the-books transactions that figured in collapsed Enron’s accounting scandal. The new requirements take effect in August.