Money Management Executive Latest News

As expected, Bear Stearns settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange over allegations that it enabled hedge fund clients to market time and late trade mutual funds. Two of the firm's units, its clearing arm and brokerage unit, are paying a total of $250 million, $160 million in restitution and $90 million in fines.

Dow Jones Indexes has unveiled three regional and country indexes that track the highest-yielding stocks in the Asia/Pacific region, Asia, and Japan.

The trustees of three closed-end Putnam Investments funds have voted to recommend that trustees of those funds vote against open-ending the Putnam Investment Grade Municipal Trust, the Putnam Master Intermediate Income Trust and the Putnam Premier Income Trust funds.

Score another one for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Loren E. McMaster has ruled against a lawsuit Edward Jones filed to block a lawsuit Lockyer filed against the firm over its mutual fund sales practices, Dow Jones reports. Judge McMaster tentatively ruled that Lockyer is not precluded by Federal laws from filing such a suit.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued H&R Block for fraudulently marketing more than 500,000 individual retirement accounts because it didn't disclose hidden fees. Further, 85% of these customers actually lost money in these IRAs because the interest rates were actually lower than the fees they paid, Spitzer's lawsuit, filed with the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, charged.

The NASD announced Wednesday it has fined Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith $5 million for supervisory failures, impermissible sales contests, unsuitable mutual fund switches and other violations between 2001 and 2004 at two of its call centers, in Hopewell, N.J., and Jacksonville, Fla. The firm has also been prohibited from staging any other sales contests for three years and is required to hire a consultant to oversee its compliance programs.

A much-ballyhooed new book that was touted as helping Baby Boomers figure out the magic savings number they each will need to be prepared for retirement has fallen way short of sales targets, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Dreyfus has hired Jon Baum as vice chairman of distribution, a new position at the firm. In this role, Baum is responsible for overseeing distribution of Dreyfus's products to intermediaries and managing relationships with those intermediaries, as well as supervising the firm's internal wholesalers and retirement and separate account specialists. He will report to Dreyfus President Thomas F. Eggers and serve on the firm's operating and senior management committees.

Mellon Financial Corp. has created a new division within its private wealth management unit that will focus on sales, marketing and client service, naming Craig Sutherland as its vice chairman. Sutherland previously was national director and head of Eastern markets for private wealth management. Lawrence Hughes, formerly private wealth chief operating officer, has been promoted to assume Sutherland's previous job, with the title of executive director.

Bear Stearns has finally settled a two-year-old probe into allowing hedge funds to market time and late trade mutual funds by agreeing to pay a $250 million fine, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange will announce the settlement later this week, according to the sources.