Most Funds Get Behind New Set of Proposed Rules

A large part of the mutual fund industry, with little fanfare, has adopted proposed personal-investing restraints on their portfolio managers and employees, an Investment Company Institute survey shows.

The trade group’s survey reflects widespread endorsement of 15 measures it proposed almost a year ago to prevent conflicts of interest, unearth abusive practices and maintain investor confidence.

The survey results have been submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the industry’s main regulator. The agency is likely to use it to determine whether its rules should be amended to provide minimum standards for an industrywide code of ethics.

About 85% of individual members and two of every three fund groups with funds that are institute members responded to the survey, the ICI said. The names of responding companies were not disclosed in the survey, which was made public last week.

Of the fund groups responding, 82% have incorporated a statement of principles in their code of ethics emphasizing that it is their duty to place the interests of shareholders first.