Vanguard to pay $106.4 million to settle US SEC charges, regulator says

(Reuters) – The Vanguard Group has agreed to pay $106.4 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges over misleading statements related to capital gains distributions and tax consequences for retail investors, the regulator said on Friday.

The SEC found that retail investors in certain Vanguard target retirement funds faced higher tax liabilities and were deprived of potential growth in their investment after Vanguard failed to make fulsome disclosures to investors, according to the agency’s statement.

“Materially accurate information about capital gains and tax implications is critical to investors saving for their retirements,” Corey Schuster, Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Asset Management Unit, said in the statement.

Counsel for the firm, which did not admit or deny the SEC’s charges, did not respond immediately to request for comment.

The settlement resolves the SEC’s probe along with parallel investigations by the New York and New Jersey Attorneys General and Connecticut Department of Banking.