SEC Hardens Soft Dollar Rules

There's a report on Reuters today outlining that soft-dollar deals (where money managers pay above-market commission rates to get "free" brokerage services such as stock research) will be further restricted, but not banned, under rules adopted yesterday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The story is also picked up by TheStreet.com under the headline "No Hard Line on Soft-Dollar Trading Deals".