Barry P. Barbash, the nation's top mutual fund cop, knows when the industry he regulates is feeding him a line.
For the last dozen years, Mr. Barbash, 40, was a New York lawyer whose clients included some of the nation's biggest mutual fund companies. And his years on the other side of the fence help him distinguish between the truth and, the, well, bull.
When the industry is wailing over the possible effect of new Securities and Exchange Commission rules, he said, his experience "helps me evaluate whether those arguments are good or bad."
Mr. Barbash's division at the SEC oversees regulation of mutual fund and public utility holding companies, including the $2 trillion in publicly offered mutual funds. The division has 160 Washington-based employees, as well as 200 across the country.
Right now, Mr. Barbash shares responsibility for bank mutual funds with the industry's regulators. But he makes it clear he'd like to do a little less sharing.
"Our whole approach to regulatory life is different," Mr. Barbash said. "Our focus is on consumer investor protection. The bank regulators' general focus has been safety and soundness."
Mr. Barbash said he thinks regulators need to be especially mindful of consumers when dealing with bank mutual funds.
"There is a real group of people out there who, for one reason or another, have great confidence in their banker," Mr. Barbash said. On the one hand, that gives banks a built-in fund-selling advantage. At the same time, institutions must respect their customers' trust, he said.
"It is incumbent on bank personnel to know that mutual funds are not insured or guaranteed," Mr. Barbash said -- and not to tell customers otherwise.
On other regulatory matters, Mr. Barbash is pushing for better mutual fund disclosure generally. He said the SEC would soon finish its rulemaking on short-form prospectuses.
The agency will also be taking a closer look at mutual funds' use and disclosure of derivatives.
Mr. Barbash returned to government to oversee the same SEC division where he was a staff attorney just a few years after finishing law school.
Before returning to the SEC, Mr. Barbash worked at the New York law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher for 12 years, specializing in domestic and foreign investment company and money manager issues.
When he's not overseeing the hot mutual funds industry, Mr. Barbash is usually spending time with his family -- his 5-year-old daughter, Karen, and his wife, Amy Fine. He's a diehard Boston Red Sox fan, having been raised in Massachusetts.
Mr. Barbash also likes to play basketball. "I basically go out with my daughter," he said. "She rebounds, and I shoot.
Barry P. Barbash
Director, division of investment management
SEC
450 5th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20549
202-942-0720
