Stradley Ronon Launches Industry’s First Report Analyzing ETF Share Class Applications
Report Brings Transparency to Applications Seeking Long-Awaited SEC Exemption
Washington — Stradley Ronon has released the mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry’s first report on a closely watched regulatory issue — ETF share class relief — on which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering taking action. The report analyzes the 51 exemptive applications currently pending before the SEC in which asset managers and fund complexes seek permission to use a unique multiple share class structure, offering investors both mutual fund and ETF share classes in a single fund. The full report is available here.
“Our report brings clarity to a topic that is enormously important but presently opaque to the market,” said Michael Mundt, partner in Stradley Ronon’s investment management practice, which is actively advising clients on the regulatory environment impacting ETFs, including applications for share class relief. Mike previously worked in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management for about 14 years, where he had a leading role in developing the regulatory framework for ETFs and supervised the office that reviewed exemptive applications under the Investment Company Act of 1940, including the original applications for ETF share class relief.
For the first time in one place, Stradley Ronon’s report offers market insight on all of the applications seeking exemptive relief. The report highlights, among other data points:
- The 51 pending applications, including links to the filings themselves.
- The types of relief they seek, with most applicants seeking to add both ETF classes to mutual funds and mutual fund classes to ETFs.
- The conditions that the applicants have committed to, with the applicant pool coalescing around certain core conditions.
“This data-driven digital report provides the fund industry with an important resource, as readers can access each application and track developments over time,” said Brian Murphy, partner in Stradley Ronon’s investment management practice who previously spent a decade in senior leadership positions at both the SEC and Vanguard, where he played an instrumental role in implementing share class relief.
Stradley Ronon’s deep bench of ETF practitioners have advised on multiple pending applications for ETF share class relief, including the longest pending application filed by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP that has served as a model for most of the subsequent filings by other asset managers and fund companies.
About Stradley Ronon
Counseling clients since 1926, Stradley Ronon has helped private and public companies — from small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations — achieve their goals by providing pragmatic, value-driven legal counsel. With offices in nine locations, our responsive team of more than 200 lawyers seamlessly addresses the full spectrum of our clients’ needs, ranging from sophisticated corporate transactions to complex commercial litigation.