The staff of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management effectively allowed brokers to determine the commissions they will charge their customers who buy “Clean Shares” of mutual funds.

In a “no-action” letter dated January 11, 2017, the staff said that it concurs with the view that the restrictions of Section 22(d) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 would not apply when a broker, acting as agent for a customer, charges its customers commissions for effecting transactions of a mutual fund without any front-end, back-end or other asset-based sales charge (so-called “Clean Shares”).