When Third Avenue's junk bond mutual fund suddenly liquidated and gated investors late last week, many wondered how can the multi-billion asset manager do this without getting a pre-approval - or frankly any comment - from the SEC first as it should, and parallel to that: how can the SEC not have any idea whatsoever about just how woeful the liquidity conditions and redemptions at the funds it supervises are.
We are about to find out.
According to Bloomberg, several days after the biggest credit event in years took place, the SEC has released a statement by its spokeswoman Gina Talamona, who said that the "commission staff is on site, and we continue to closely evaluate the fund’s efforts to ensure it provides an orderly process that best protects investors."
And now you can again sleep safe again America, knowing that the SEC is "on top of things" and everything is contained.
