Money Management Executive Latest News

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and NASD have been investigating trading at Fidelity Investments, the world's largest mutual fund company, to find out whether traders skewed their business decisions in return for lavish gifts from certain Wall Street brokers according to an August 8 Reuters report.

Fidelity Investments has just launched a new international small-cap equity fund, designed to provide investors and financial advisers with an opportunity to capitalize on the growth potential of smaller, less-well-known companies in non-U.S. market.

PowerShares Capital Management is starting an exchange-traded fund that blends active management with indexing. The PowerShares Zacks Micro Cap Portfolio follows the Zacks Micro Cap Index, which attempts to enhance the performance of the index by concentrating on particular stocks.

Putnam Investments is in talks with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle a problem with performance fees. In February of 2004, Putnam revealed that the SEC raised questions regarding performance fees in the Putnam Research Fund.

Discount broker E-Trade Financial announced yesterday that it would acquire Massachusetts-based asset manager Kobren Insight Management for an undisclosed amount.

Northern Trust said Tuesday that it had hired Michael Blake to be a vice president of business development within its global fund services unit. Blake is to be based in Chicago and develop business for the group, which serves investment managers, fund sponsors and other entities that manage money in-house. Before joining Northern Trust, Blake was the director of financial markets at Business Logic Corp. in Chicago, where he was responsible for sales and marketing of financial planning and managed account software to institutional clients. Previously, he was a manager in the compensation and benefits practice at Grant Thornton LLP in Chicago and an officer at Northern Trust.

Janus Chief Operating Officer Girard Miller will resign as of Jan. 3, Janus announced yesterday, but even so, Chief Financial Officer David Martin will handle most of Miller's responsibilities over the next several months.

Former Prudential Securities broker Skifter Ajro pled guilty yesterday to processing $1.3 billion worth of market-timing trades in mutual funds on behalf of hedge fund clients.

Oppenheimer Holdings indicated in an SEC filing yesterday that NASD is set to recommend action against its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Albert G. Lowenthal for failures related to breakpoints.

Oppenheimer Funds has recently put a proposal on the table to create an 11-member board for 33 of its 60 mutual funds as well as four hedge funds managed by its Tremont Capital Management unit. The firm notified shareholders of the plan in a proxy filing late last month and is asking them to vote on the proposal, according to Dow Jones Newswire.