Money Management Executive Latest News

Old Mutual may have a strong presence in the financial services industry, but ask the average American about the 162-year-old company with $491 billion in assets under management, and they're likely to answer "old what?"

Buoyed by an additional $100 million investment in research over the past two years and the market again favoring growth stocks, Fidelity fund managers once again have the touch, according to report from Morningstar analyst Dan Lefkowitz, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“The time has arrived for nascent markets to take some form of center stage, and we are working on several mandates,” Akbar Poonawala, head of global equity services at Deutsche Bank, told The Wall Street Journal. “When we met investors, we were surprised to find significant unsatisfied demand for frontier emerging markets.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously approved a proposal Thursday to improve mutual fund disclosures by requiring fund companies to send short-form prospectuses to investors instead of longer, bulky paper prospectuses.

Despite turmoil in the capital markets, mergers and acquisitions among asset management firms have hit a new record of 208 transactions worth $46.7 billion so far this year, according to Putnam Lovell.

Bank of America joins the growing ranks of mutual fund companies that are coming to their money market funds’ aid due to subprime exposure in structured investment vehicles (SIV). BoA said it might spend up to $600 million to support its funds.

China regulators put new mutual fund offerings on the back burner over the past two months in an attempt to cool down what appears to be an overheated market, but have just allowed ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management’s Core Value Funds to reopen to investors, Shanghai Daily reports. Likewise, Golden Eagle Asset Management’s Component Stocks Preferred Funds will reopen later this month.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin filed a civil complaint against Bear Stearns on Wednesday, charging the firm with improperly trading mortgage-backed and collateralized debt obligation securities from its own account with the two failed hedge funds. Galvin said the trading began in 2004 and continued through this year.

Strong inflows combined with market returns boosted Fidelity Investments’ brokerage assets by 24% from a year ago to $1.96 trillion at the end of September.

Hedge fund executives expect to increase their investments in Asia significantly over the next several years, the Thai News Service reports.