Financial regulation has been on the table for some time now and a topic of fervent debate in the industry. In Friday's Fund Track column, The Wall Street Journal talked to a handful of fund managers who believe more regulation would be a very good thing.

"All this proposed legislation is about higher transparency," Ron Sloan, chief investment officer at Invesco's domestic-core investment management unit and manager of Invesco Mid Cap Equity Fund told the WSJ. "How can that be a bad thing?"

The managers spoke about the positives of regulating big banks and watching the use of derivatives. David Ellison, chief investment officer of FBR Funds and manager of FBR Small Cap Financial Fund, said that financial reform is already happening in the industry, seperate from Washington, and the new regulations will only further the cause.

"We've got 5,000 banks in the country, and they're in full repair mode," he said. "Nonperforming loans are declining and good loans are being made. The sector has been in repair mode for nearly two years. The regulation is just salt on the steak," Ellison said in the article.

The WSJ also spoke with Bill Smead, chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management and Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.

"We can't have a generation of citizens that go through their life thinking the stock market is not a safe place to be," said Hogan. 

Edited by: Daniel Tovrov


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