Practice

Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last Thursday on the role of hedge funds in the credit crisis, five prominent hedge fund executives said they would be in favor of establishing a public exchange or clearinghouse for credit default swaps (CDS) to make the market more transparent.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will not revisit 12b-1 fees by the end of the year, Andrew Donohue, director of the division of investment management, told Reuters.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets is looking at ways to better understand and regulate derivatives and credit default swaps, which essentially are insurance on corporate debt.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will vote at its Nov. 19 meeting next week on a provision to allow shortened mutual fund disclosure statements.

Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee onThursday on the role of hedge funds in the credit crisis, five prominent hedge fund executives said they would be in favor of establishing a public exchange or clearinghouse for credit default swaps (CDS)to make that market more transparent.

Charles Schwab on Wednesday unveiled an eight-step plan to help people prioritize both their short-term and long-term savings objectives.

A systems administrator who was laid off on Nov. 5 from an unnamed mutual fund company in New York wasn’t happy enough with the severance package the company gave him, Computerworld reports.

Money market mutual fund managers holding onto short-term debt they are unable to unload into the market will have to continue to hold on tight, because the Federal Reserve is not going to extend its $540 billion in loans to purchase the paper through the Money Market Investor Funding Facility until next month.

Van Kampen Funds on Tuesday launched the family of Van Kampen Retirement Strategy Funds. The nine target-date funds, with target retirement dates in five-year increments between 2010 and 2050, plus a fund for those already retired, are based on investment strategies determined by Russell Investments and are designed to provide broader diversification and lower risk than other target-date funds.

In a poll of bank wealth managers a day after Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th president of the United States, 50% said they expect their high-net-worth clients to be negatively impacted by the new administration, SEI found. Twelve percent said they expect a positive impact, but 38% said they were sure whether it will be positive or negative.