Portfolio

Financial industry analysts are anticipating a wave of new regulations to come out of this financial crisis, but with any luck, mutual funds will escape a direct hit.

Clients withdrew cash from municipal bond mutual funds at a clip not seen since October.

Total assets of money market mutual funds rose $34.48 billion during the week ending Dec. 10, to settle at $3.777 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Investment managers will now be able to automate, centralize and standardize purchases, exchanges and redemptions directly though the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s Fund/SERV and other mutual fund services, instead of having to go through a third party.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday fined eight former Fidelity traders $1.04 million for accepting lavish gifts from brokers, not least of which included trips on private jets and courtside sports tickets.

With interest rates falling so low, it will soon cost more for fund companies to run somemoney market funds than their investments, The Wall Street Journal reports. Rather than step in to make investors whole or permit their funds to break the buck, some money funds will likely close.

Fidelity International and its U.K. partner Dalton Strategic Partnership will be saying goodbye to David Urch and Jonathan Cobb, two high-profile equity portfolio managers they hired to work in the Edinburgh office just before the credit crunch, Dow Jones reports.

The Epiphany Fund, which invests according to Catholic principles, can’t exactly boast that it is bucking the trend of most mutual funds going into the red. It’s down 33.5% so far this year.

The Tokyo joint venture between Fortress Investment Group and DKR Capital is laying off an unspecified number of people, Dow Jones reports. However, the office is not shutting down entirely.

Mark-to-market accounting has merit, but financial institutions need better clarity on its application for very distressed assets, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said.