Money Management Executive Latest News

The Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into backdating stock options has extended to more than 100 companies and it will be pressing additional charges in the near future, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told the Senate Banking Commission yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A lawsuit against American Century Investment Management charging that the company imposed excessively high mutual fund fees on three of its funds--and challenging the $1 billion in fees those funds charged between 2003 and 2006--has been dropped.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Friday that it will not contest a judge's decision that it didn't have a case against former CIBC managing director Paul Flynn for allegedly helping hedge funds to market time and late trade mutual funds.

Mark Hurant, a former broker at Bear Stearns, has filed a $30 million arbitration claim with the NASD on the grounds he was wrongfully terminated from the firm in 2003 for facilitating market timing, The Wall Street Journal reports. Half of that claim is for compensatory damages and half is for punitive damages.

Moody's Investors Service has begun rating the operational risk of hedge funds, beginning with Sorin Capital Management, The Wall Street Journal reports. The ratings takes into consideration a variety of factors, including back-office systems, hedges against sudden losses and executives' backgrounds. Moody's gave Sorin a rating one notch below its highest rating.

First American Funds is touting a new fund it launched in June as one that can meet the two greatest needs of retirees: current income and the opportunity to grow assets, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Few funds have had as wild a ride or are such a study in contrasts as the Jacob Internet Fund, New Jersey's Daily Record reports.

Call it the $3 billion conundrum. The consultants, academics and financial firms working with the SEC and other regulators to determine who should receive the $3 billion-plus collected from the market-timing scandal--and how much--continue to wrestle with the problem, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Edward D. Jones reached a tentative settlement on nine class-action lawsuits for not telling investors it accepted revenue-sharing payments from mutual fund companies to promote their funds, the company announced last Thursday. The settlement still must be approved, however, by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

U.S. Global Investors is planning a new fund that will invest in India and the neighboring region, joining only two open-end funds that currently have such a specialty, The Wall Street Journal reports. Charlemagne Capital, a U.K. investment manager that specializes in emerging markets, will sub-advise the fund.