SECURITIES

SEC Expected to Approve Investor Safeguards: The proposed rule would tighten investor protection on $127 billion in money market funds that invest in tax-exempt municipal bonds. The Securities and Exchange Commission staff will recommend that the agency tighten the diversification, credit-quality and maturity-limitation conditions that these funds are required to meet, said Barry Barbash, the SEC’s investment management chief. The complex recommendations seek to protect the principal of money market funds that invest in municipal bonds, which accounted for 16% of the $775 billion in total mutual fund assets as of Jan. 1, Barbash said. The mutual fund industry is generally supportive of the proposed changes, he said.