Industry

Putnam Selects Farrell as Head of Equity Trading

Waddell & Reed is planning to first offer employees voluntary layoff packages next month, and depending on how that goes, will hand out pink slips the following week, the Kansas City Star reports. The goal is to reduce payroll costs by 15%.

Morningstar has acquired the business operations of InvestData of South Africa, a fund data provider, for undisclosed terms.

One hundred people, or approximately 30% of the people working in prime brokerage at Barclays Bank, lost their jobs earlier this month, Global Banking News reports.

More than 110,000 people working in finance in the U.S. have lost their jobs so far this year, but that could nearly double to more than 200,000 in the final weeks of the year, the Anniston Star reports.

Massachusetts lost another 7,000 in October, the worst month for the state’s labor market since March 2005, the Patriot Ledger reports.

Monagle to Assist Reserve As Liquidation Adviser

Stressing that the reorganization is not motivated by the financial crisis but a strong desire to improve accountability and, with that, performance, Putnam Investments Chief Executive Officer Robert Reynolds announced the firm is doing away with team-managed equity mutual funds. Instead, those funds will be run by single portfolio managers.

The financial turmoil in the markets is far from over, and mutual fund firms can expect assets to continue to decline further, investors to remain skittish, and regulators to be reactive well into 2009, experts say.

OppenheimerFunds has appointed William F. Glavin, Jr. as CEO, effective January 1. Current Chairman and CEO John V. Murphy will remain the chairman and continue to serve as president and a director/trustee of the funds until his retirement at the end of next year.