Money Management Executive Latest News

After criticism that regulators over-corrected after the age of Enron, some observers say they see the Securities Exchange Commission slowly slipping away from its fervently investor-oriented positions toward a more business-friendly orientation, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Mutual Fund managers who specialize in buying when stocks bottom out are sitting tight, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The man who calls himself “The Bishop” and who has sent six threatening letters and two dud pipe bombs over the past 18 months is expected to strike again, the Associated Press reports. One of the pipe bombs was sent to American Century on Jan. 31. Then, on Feb. 1, a similar explosive was found in a Chicago office building.And next time, given that “The Bishop’s” letters have become increasingly menacing, the bombs could be real, warns Stratfor counterterrorism expert Fred Burton.

JPMorgan Funds this week has launched three international funds that each will invest at least 80% of their assets in China, Russia and Latin America, respectively. The JPMorgan China Region Fund will be managed out of Hong Kong by a five-person team: Howard Wang, Shumin Huang, Emerson Yip, Patrick Lung and Peter Tang.

After withdrawing $3.42 billion from U.S. equity funds in December, investors poured $7.23 billion into them in January, possibly signaling a reversal in the long interest in global and emerging markets funds, Investor’s Business Daily reports.

Fund companies continued to vote their proxies overwhelmingly in support of management in 2006, supporting 92% of management-sponsored proposals last year but only 37% of shareholder-sponsored proposals, Reuters reports.

In an attempt to distinguish themselves in order to win customers, asset management firms are increasingly offering institutional-quality investment choices in retirement plans, MarketWatch reports, populating 401(k) plans with hedge-like funds, commodities, real estate and other alternative investments.

Asked whether all of the problems in the fund industry have been solved with the eight new regulations that the Securities and Exchange Commission has imposed on it since the fund trading scandal erupted, Andrew Donohue, the SEC’s top fund regulator, tells The Wall Street Journal that the Commission will continue to search for infractions.

John Hancock has created a retirement income and rollover solutions business unit.

John Hancock has created a retirement income and rollover solutions business unit.