Portfolio

Michael Decker, managing director and co-head of municipal securities at SIFMA, sets forth his case for not federally regulating underwriters when they provide what he calls “advice” to municipal securities issuers.

Municipal bond mutual funds continued to garner cash last week despite the flight from risk that has driven most of the flows this month.

It wasn’t a hedge fund, a proprietary trading desk at an investment bank or a rogue trader that may have been the key trigger behind the “flash crash,” one-thousand-point drop in the Dow.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp., does not agree with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to file charges against it in connection with an industry-wide investigation of guaranteed investment contracts and derivatives, but is discussing the matter, including a “potential resolution,” with SEC staff.

Putnam Investments is expanding its reach into the 529 college savings plan arena, after its 10-year partnership with Ohio Tuition Trust Authority comes to an end in October. Putnam is seeking new opportunities in the nationwide college savings marketplace, including new state partnerships and investment-only mandates, a spokesman from the firm said.

The sub-Saharan markets have seen 11% growth over the past five years, far surpassing the U.S market.

Money market mutual funds ended their 18-week losing streak as investors sought the safety of cash in increasingly volatile markets. Total money fund assets rose by $24.23 billion to $2.878 trillion for the week ending May 12, according to the Investment Company Institute.

State Street Global Advisors and Nuveen Investments launched an exchange-traded fund tracking Build America Bonds yesterday as investment vehicles devoted to taxable municipal debt continue to proliferate.

Declining annuity premiums mean insurers may have to rethink their annuities products in order to survive, according to a report by Scott Hawkins, vice president and insurance analyst at Conning Research & Consulting in Hartford, Conn.

Sales struggle as dwindling variable annuity riders make 1035 exchanges less likely, compelling insurers to reinvent the wheel, according to a study.