Lest the buyout industry feel left out of the regulatory crackdown that has recently been visited upon hedge funds and major banks, the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated it’s taking a close look at the fees and compliance structures at private equity funds. The SEC found “illegal fees or severe compliance shortfalls in more than half of the firms it examined since starting a review of the $3.5 trillion industry two years ago,” Drew Bowden, the head of the SEC’s exam program, said in a speech on Tuesday. More scrutiny is sure to come.

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