Practice

Baby Boomers preparing to fund their retirement years have fueled an annuity sales boom at banking companies since the spring of 2007, and regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of financial services institutions that sell them.

Barclays is planning to launch a family of target-date and target-risk exchange-traded funds, drawing from its existing iShares, Dow Jones reports. The percentage of equity holdings will range from 91% to 58%.

When the House of Representatives holds a hearing on the merits of 401(k) debit cards, and even Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, says tapping into that equity might be a “creative way to stimulate the economy”—you know they pose a serious threat to both the mutual fund industry and investors’ retirement.

The European Union proposed a new set of rules Thursday to make Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) even more efficient by eliminating additional regulatory hurdles. Most notably, the rules- which will replace 10 directives with just one and go into effect in 2011-will allow cross-border mergers of funds, making Europe's mutual fund industry more efficient. They will also permit master-feeder structures and eliminate much of the administrative paperwork currently required to market funds to other markets in the European Union of 27 member states.

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Federal regulators are cracking down on the potential spread of false and misleading rumors that could potentially affect market conditions.

The deadline for entries to Money Management Executive’s Sixth Annual Fund Operations Awards has been extended through Thursday, July 31, so you still have plenty of time to enter.

NAVA has teamed with IBM to launch a tool establishing an automated standardized process that streamlines the sale of annuities.

Supporters of pension funds argued before Congress that the plans play a critical role in ensuring retirement security and stimulating the economy.

Bruce R. Bent, founder and chairman of Reserve Management Corp., defended his company’s debit cards linked to 401(k) plans Thursday by saying that they encourage employees to sign up for the retirement accounts and that they reduce the dollar amount of loans taken out against them.