July 31, 1997
TO: BOARD OF GOVERNORS No. 46-97
SEC RULES MEMBERS No. 55-97
RE: CHAIRMAN LEVITT REMARKS AT AMERICAN SAVINGS EDUCATION COUNSEL
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Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, recently
spoke on July 23rd at the American Savings Education Council meeting held in New York City.
The theme of Levitts speech, entitled "Fulfilling the Promise of Disclosure," was on the SECs
efforts to improve disclosure and, in particular, the prospectus. He noted that many investors
no longer rely on prospectuses, citing, among other findings, Institute research. Levitt noted
that disclosure has two aspects: "the information made available to investors, and the
information that actually gets across to investors." He said that the SEC needed to focus more
on the second aspect and mentioned in particular the proposed mutual fund profile and the
proposed revisions to the full mutual fund prospectus, as well as the Commissions "plain
English" initiative.
A copy of Chairman Levitts speech is attached.
Barry E. Simmons
Assistant Counsel
Attachment (in .pdf format)
Note: Not all recipients of this memo will receive an attachment. If you wish to obtain a copy
of the attachment referred to in this memo, please call the Institute’s Information Resource
Center at (202)326-8304, and ask for this memo’s attachment number: 9106.