The SEC's enforcement division is reportedly looking into OppenheimerFunds [profile] and at least one other mutual fund shop over how they use mutual fund assets to pay for sales.

Erin Stattel, a spokeswoman for the SEC, declined to comment for this story.

"As a matter of practice, we do not confirm or deny the existence of nonpublic regulatory inquiries," Kimberly Weinrick, head of corporate communications at OpFunds, told MFWire.

According to published reports from Ignites and BoardIQ, the cases are the first that have been referred to the enforcement division as part of the SEC's two-year-old probe into fund fees and sales, which is focusing on the use of sub-transfer agency fees (sub-TAs) to pay broker-dealers. (Sub-TAs are also used to pay for 401(k) recordkeeping services.)

OpFunds' Weinrick clarified to MFWire that "the Oppenheimer funds do not pay intermediaries for third party record keeping services."

"The funds' advisor [i.e. OpFunds itself] pays for those services out of its own resources," Weinrick said. "We believe this is a sound and transparent practice."

Fundsters voiced their concerns about the ongoing probe at the ICI's 2015 Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference in March. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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