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Companies with 401(k) plans and their employees may have to wait a little longer to find out what they are paying for their plans.

The Labor Department may push back the April 1 deadline that 401(k) plan providers were given to comply with new rules about fee disclosures, according to several people who had spoken to officials at the department.

One reason for the delay is that the release of the final rule, on how providers will be required to disclose their fees to employers, has been delayed for months, and isn’t expected to be published until the end of January. The rule will apply to all service providers, including recordkeepers, financial advisers and fund companies that work with 401(k) plans.

The Labor Department has a “high degree of confidence” that it can issue the rule by the end of January, according to a person familiar with the matter, adding that the department was sympathetic to the industry’s concerns about the short deadline for complying with the rule and wanted to avoid “a chaotic adjustment period.”

For 401(k) plan sponsors and participants, the delay means waiting three more months to find out what they are paying for their plans. The point of the disclosures is so that employers and ultimately employees know exactly what it is they are paying for when they sign up for their 401(k) plans.

Critics argue that it isn’t transparent what fees employers and plan participants are paying because much of it is buried in prospectuses and similar documents. As it stands, companies that offer 401(k) plans as retirement savings vehicles for employees are supposed to have access to fee information by April 1. Participants would get fee disclosures by June 1.

But for 401(k) plan providers, a delay of a few months would provide time to clarify exactly what they need to do to comply with the regulation, officials at industry lobbying groups said.

“We are very happy to work with the Department of Labor on expanded fee disclosure, but we need to know what it is we are complying with,” said Lisa Bleier, managing director of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents hundreds of broker-dealers, banks and asset managers.

SIFMA wrote a letter to the Department of Labor on December 2 requesting a 12-to-18-month extension on the deadline from when the rule is finalized.

The Labor Department came out with the current version of the rule in July 2010 and gave providers 12 months to comply. After industry opposition, the agency extended the deadline to April 2012. With the final version of the rule still awaiting release, plan providers say they won’t have enough time to comply.

“The DOL needs to give us some breathing room,” said David Tittsworth, executive director of the Investment Adviser Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. “Every day that goes by that you don’t have the new rule, it becomes more compelling to extend that time frame.”

Of particular concern for providers is whether the final rule will require them to provide a summary disclosure of all fees associated with the plan, on top of the actual fee disclosures. If so, providers also want guidance on the format that disclosure needs to take, said Craig Hoffman, general counsel for the Association of Pension Professionals and Actuaries.

“We are not opposed to the idea…, but we need sufficient time to implement it,” he said. ASPPA, in conjunction with the Council of Independent 401(k) Recordkeepers wrote a letter to the Department of Labor on December 19 asking for at least 12 months after the rule is finalized to comply with it.

” I would not be surprised if they came forward with an extension,” Hoffman said.

A Labor Department spokesman declined to comment.

A delay would also give plan providers more time before they face pressure to cut fees in the face of heightened competition as costs are put in the spotlight.

But sources familiar with the discussions at the Labor Department said providers should not expect a long delay on the deadline to comply with fee disclosures.

“The (department) is definitely flexible, but they do want it to happen this year,” said one person who had spoken to Labor Department officials.

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In a Dec. 30 story about iceberg lettuce being removed from grocery stores after salmonella was found in an Arizona field adjacent to the grower’s property, The Associated Press, relying on information from Kroger and its affiliated Smith’s Food and Drug, erroneously reported the lettuce had been removed from stores in North Carolina, among at least six other states. Kroger said Saturday the product never made it to its North Carolina stores.

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Federal regulators are blocking Duke Energy’s planned acquisition of Progress Energy to form the country’s largest electric company, ruling the companies haven’t done enough to protect competition in their North Carolina and South Carolina home markets.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had scheduled a Thursday hearing on changes to the merger plans in Washington, but regulators surprised the utilities late Wednesday by rejecting the companies’ solution to protect competition.

The FERC action is likely to delay the merger’s year-end target for completion and could require changes that the companies find unattractive.

A Duke spokesman said the company was reviewing the order. He wouldn’t comment about how it affects Duke’s commitment to the deal.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Paul Fremont said the companies’ next move will be to take a serious look at their power plants and decide which can be sold. Any proposed sale must be reviewed by state regulators, who would need guarantees that it wouldn’t affect pre-negotiated power rates for utility customers.

The order will delay the deal by about three months, at least, he said. The companies also may walk away from the deal at this point, deciding that the government was demanding too many sacrifices. “It’s too early to say at this point” what will happen, Fremont said.

The federal agency in September questioned the deal’s impact on customers in North and South Carolina. Regulators suggested that the companies consider a number of measures that would diminish their influence, such as selling power plants, building new transmission lines or giving up control of their transmission system to a regional operator. The companies responded last month with a plan to sell excess electricity at a fixed price to wholesale buyers in their Carolinas territories.

Regulators now say the proposal by Charlotte-based Duke and Raleigh-based Progress doesn’t go far enough.

The “mitigation proposal does not remedy the proposed transaction’s adverse effects on competition,” the FERC ruling said.

Duke first announced it planned to buy Progress in January for $13.7 billion. If approved, the combined company will serve 7.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

Duke shares rose 12 cents to $20.97 in premarket trading Thursday while Progress shares added 6 cents to $54.49.

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Questioned by senators he once served with, Jon Corzine told a panel Tuesday that he never told anyone to “misuse” customer money that vanished when MF Global collapsed this fall.

An estimated $1.2 billion in client funds are missing. Senators are demanding that Corzine and two other executives at the securities firm explain who authorized the transfer of money in the days before the firm collapsed in the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“I never gave any instruction to anyone at MF Global to misuse customer funds,” Corzine testified at a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday.”

Corzine, a former Democratic New Jersey senator and governor, resigned as CEO of the securities firm last month.

Bradley Abelow, the firm’s president and chief operating officer, and Henri Steenkamp, the chief financial officer, also tried to distance themselves from any decision to transfer the money at the hearing.

Brokers are required to keep client money separate from company funds.

“Funds don’t simply disappear. Someone took action, whether legal or illegal, to move that money. And the effect of that decision is being felt across the countryside,” said Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the committee’s top Republican.

Roberts said MF Global violated “a sacred rule of the futures industry,” keeping customer funds separate from the firm’s _ and that it was the first time that had happened. “You don’t break the glass in regards to segregated funds.”

All three witnesses said they don’t know where the money is. Yet their phrasing varied in subtle ways that could have legal distinctions.

Corzine said he did not direct anyone to “misuse” the money.

Abelow said he does not recall “any conversation about customer funds being used for anything other than their intended purpose.”

Steenkamp’s stance was more sweeping. He said he did not “authorize, approve or know of any transfers of customer funds” out of their accounts.

Depending on the circumstances, transferring money from customers’ accounts could violate securities laws and, in some cases, could amount to a crime. Federal authorities have begun criminal investigations. And regulators are looking into whether the firm broke securities rules.

The executives said that given what is now known, they wouldn’t have signed the firm’s last quarterly financial statement attesting that its internal financial controls were adequate.

Under a 2002 anti-corporate-fraud law that Corzine co-wrote as a U.S. senator, the top executives of public companies must personally certify the accuracy of their company’s financial statements. It can be a violation of the law for executives to sign a false statement.

MF Global collapsed into the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history after a disastrous bet on European debt.

The three executives say that they didn’t become aware of the shortfall until hours before the firm filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31.

Tuesday’s hearing included an added element of intrigue because Corzine, a former Democratic senator from New Jersey, was pressed by some senators he served with from 2000 through 2005.

The Senate panel is one of three congressional committees to have issued subpoenas to compel Corzine’s testimony on the issue. It marked the first time a former senator has been subpoenaed by his former peers in more than 100 years, according to the Senate historian’s office.

Many lawmakers have heard from farmers, ranchers and small business owners in their states who are missing money that was deposited with the firm. Agricultural businesses use brokerage firms like MF Global to help reduce their risks in an industry vulnerable to swings in oil, corn and other commodity prices.

Corzine told lawmakers last week that he never intended to authorize the transfer of funds from customer accounts. If any subordinates moved clients’ money in the belief that Corzine had authorized it, “it was a misunderstanding,” he said.

Corzine, Steenkamp and Abelow have been sued in class-action complaints on behalf of MF Global shareholders. The lawsuits accuse the executives of making false and misleading statements about MF Global’s financial strength and cash balances.

MF Global didn’t list the European debt on its balance sheet for all to see. Instead, those holdings were shifted to the company’s “off-balance sheet,” deep in its financial statements. Some separate filings with regulators excluded the European debt entirely.

A lawyer for the trustee overseeing the liquidation of MF Global’s brokerage operations said in court Friday that the trustee’s staff has discovered some “suspicious” trades in MF Global customer accounts that were made in the last days before the firm failed. The lawyer didn’t provide details.

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WORKING OUT: After 15 years in Chicago, Sarah Dorsey Tourville is back in her hometown to open the 34th franchise of The Dailey Method, a national network of fitness studios.

Tourville’s studio, in the Village at Schneithorst at 1560 South Lindbergh Boulevard, will officially open tomorrow but is the location for a private cocktail reception tonight.

Tourville, who is former KTRS (AM 550) honcho Tim Dorsey’s eldest daughter, has been the head of ESPN’s ad sales for the Midwest the past 10 years.

She’ll be giving up that job at the end of the year to permanently relocate in St payday loans for self employed. Louis with her two children, Lilly, 4, and Ben, 2 ½. Her ex-husband is also moving here to be close to their children, Tourville said.

Tourville is offering special discounts and packages - such as six weeks of free classes for $100 — over the weekend to celebrate the opening of the studio. She added that proceeds from the opening events will go to St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

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A judge on Monday used unusually harsh language to strike down a $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the Securities and Exchange Commission over toxic mortgage securities, saying he couldn’t tell whether the deal was fair and criticizing regulators for hiding the details of the firm’s wrongdoing from the public.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the public has a right to know what happens in cases that touch on “the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives.” In such cases, the SEC has a responsibility to ensure that the truth emerges, he wrote.

Rakoff said he had spent hours trying to assess the settlement but concluded that he had not been given “any proven or admitted facts upon which to exercise even a modest degree of independent judgment.”

The SEC replied in a statement issued by enforcement director Robert Khuzami, saying the deal “reasonably reflects the scope of relief that would be obtained after a successful trial.”

The SEC had accused the bank of betting against a complex mortgage investment in 2007

A safety investigation of the lithium-ion batteries in General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Volt is under way to assess the risk of fire in the electric car after a serious crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday.

One Volt battery pack that was being closely monitored following a government crash test caught fire Thursday, the safety administration said in a statement. Another crash-tested battery emitted smoke and sparks, the statement said.

GM, which was informed of the investigation on Friday, said in a statement that the Volt “is safe and does not present undue risk as part of normal operation or immediately after a severe crash.”

The fires are in addition to a battery fire in a crash-tested Volt six months ago.

NHTSA learned of a possible fire risk involving damaged Volt batteries in June when a fire erupted in a Volt that was being stored in a parking lot a test facility in Burlington, Wis. The fire was severe enough to cause several other vehicles parked nearby to catch fire as well.

The car had been subjected to a side-impact crash test more than three weeks earlier, on May 12, during which the battery was damaged and its coolant line ruptured.

Last week’s tests of three battery packs were designed to replicate the May test. In that test, the Volt was subjected to a simulated side-impact collision into a narrow object like a tree or pole followed by a rollover, the agency said.

The first battery tested last week didn’t catch fire. But a battery test on Nov. 17 initially experienced a temporary temperature increase, and on Thursday caught fire. Another battery tested on Nov. 18, which was rotated 180 degrees within hours after the test, began to smoke and emit sparks shortly after the rotation payday advance online.

The tests were conducted by NHTSA and the Energy and Defense departments at a defense facility near Hampton Roads, Va.

So far, no fires have been reported in Volts involved in roadway crashes, NHTSA said. More than 5,000 of the vehicles have been sold.

It’s too soon to tell whether the investigation will lead to a recall of any vehicles or parts, but the government will ensure consumers are informed promptly if that occurs, the agency said.

With electronic safety systems that are part of the car, “GM knows real time about any crash significant enough to potentially compromise battery integrity,” the automaker said. “Since July, GM has implemented a post-crash protocol that includes the depowering of the battery after a severe crash, returning the battery to a safe and low-powered state.”

Electric vehicles are critical to President Barack Obama’s plans to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He has called for putting 1 million of the vehicles on the road by 2015.

Safety testing hasn’t raised concerns about electric vehicles other than the Volt, NHTSA said.

“NHTSA continues to believe that electric vehicles have incredible potential to save consumers money at the pump, help protect the environment, create jobs and strengthen national security by reducing our dependence on oil,” the agency said.

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Libya’s transitional leaders have vowed to work with the International Criminal Court and with the United Nations in investigating alleged crimes committed by Moammar Gadhafi’s recently captured son and one-time heir apparent, the court’s prosecutor said Thursday.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told The Associated Press that the court received the formal pledge in a letter from National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil. He gave the AP a copy of the letter in an English translation.

Moreno-Ocampo said he was satisfied with that move, which appears to settle a dispute between the international court and Libyan authorities over which body should try Seif al-Islam Gadhafi with crimes against humanity.

Libya is obliged by a UN Security Council resolution to work with the ICC, but that does not necessarily preclude a trial in Libya. If the court determines that the country has a functioning legal system that will give Seif al-Islam a fair trial on substantially the same charges as were filed before it, it can leave the case with Libya.

Moreno-Ocampo said the most important thing is for Seif al-Islam, whom he called the “face of the old regime,” to face justice.

It “is very important for the world and for Libya to understand what happened here, how they attacked these people, how they killed these people,” Moreno-Ocampo said.

The ICC has charged both Seif al-Islam and the Gadhafi-era intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi with crimes against humanity for unleashing the brutal crackdown on an uprising that began in February and spiraled into a civil war.

Moreno-Ocampo said he understood that it’s “a matter of national pride” for Libya’s leaders to try Gadhafi’s son themselves because they want to prove to the world that they are capable of holding a fair trial payday lenders.

He said investigations are under way into the alleged crimes committed by Gadhafi’s son and that he believed it would be ready for trial “in a few months.”

In his letter to the court, Libya’s Abdul-Jalil pledged to “fully cooperate” with the ICC and the UN Security Council.

But he asserts that the Libyan judiciary has “primary responsibility” to try Seif al-Islam, the only Gadhafi family member in Libyan custody.

The letter is addressed to a presiding judge at the court in The Hague, Sanji Mmasenono Monageng.

Seif al-Islam is being held by fighters from the Libyan town of Zintan, who flew him there after his capture in southern Libya on Saturday. The International Committee of the Red Cross visited Seif al-Islam there on Tuesday and said he appeared to be in good health.

Officials with the governing National Transitional Council also had reported that former intelligence chief al-Senoussi, who also is wanted by France over the 1989 bombing of French airliner, was captured over the weekend in the southern city of Sabha and was being held in a secret location.

However, senior Libyan officials have cast doubt on the claim.

Moreno-Ocampo said Libyan authorities told him they could not confirm that al-Senoussi was really arrested.

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