Fund Industry Strongly Supports Efforts to Protect Investors from Overcharges

Washington, DC, January 7, 2003 - The following is a statement from Investment Company Institute President Matthew P. Fink on a letter sent by Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-OH), Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt and National Association of Securities Dealers Chairman Robert Glauber commending the SEC and NASD for their actions to ensure that brokerage firms offer “breakpoints” to qualified mutual fund investors and endorsing the NASD investigation into the matter.

“We join Chairmen Oxley and Baker in supporting SEC and NASD actions to prevent alleged abusive sales practices which may have resulted in overcharging investors by failing to offer them ‘breakpoints’ that lower the cost of purchasing their mutual funds. The industry strongly supports tough regulation of sales practices involving mutual funds and will cooperate fully in the investigation on behalf of its 95 million shareholders.”