Group Denies Knowing About Market Timing

The Investment Company Institute, the U.S. mutual fund industry’s trade group, said Monday that its officials didn’t know about arrangements made by some firms to permit market timing more than two years before regulators began investigating the activity.

A conference call held in November 2000 between Washington-based ICI and some members discussed steps for restricting and preventing market timing, the group said. The ICI contacted the Securities and Exchange Commission 10 weeks later, seeking tougher restrictions on market timers.

The ICI’s statement followed a Wall Street Journal report Monday that said a representative of New York-based Alliance Capital Management Holding mentioned agreements it had with market timers during the conference call.

From Bloomberg News