Money Management Executive Latest News

Bank of America has signed a definitive agreement to buy MBNA, the No. 1 independent global credit-card lender, for $35 billion, MarketWatch has just reported.

The National Investment Company Service Association has just announced a new vice chairman and four new members of the board.Peggy Schooley, president of Evergreen Service Co., is now NICSA vice chairman, a new office for the NICSA governing board. Schooley joined Evergreen earlier this year from Pioneer Investments, where she was president and CEO with responsibility for Pioneer Investment Management Shareholder Services. She has more than 20 years of experience in the mutual fund industry and has served on various operations, broker/dealer and transfer agent committees of the Investment Company Institute and the National Investment Company Service Association.

The investigation into inappropriate gifts from brokers to Fidelity Investments traders, potentially influencing their directed-brokerage decisions, has reached the upper echelons of the Boston fund giant, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.Investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission are now joining ongoing grand jury and Justice Department probes into gifts from unnamed brokerage firms, people familiar with the situation have told the Journal.

Participants and beneficiaries of the MBNA Corporation 401k Plus Savings Plan have brought an Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) class-action suit against MBNA for alleged breach of fiduciary duties, with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP of New York handling the case, to be heard before the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.The case, Cannon v. MBNA, also names some of the company's officers and directors, its pension and 401(k) plan committee, Dwight Asset Management Company, along with the plan's investment manager.

AmSouth, a Birmingham, Ala.-based regional bank with operations across the southeast, is selling its family of 23 mutual funds, with $5.5 billion of assets under management, to Pioneer Investment Management.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted again to approve the rule requiring mutual funds to have an independent chairman, but not before some explosive fireworks.

CI Funds, Canada's third-largest fund company, announced Monday it has officially changed its name to CI Investments to more accurately reflect the broad array of financial products the company offers.

Billionaire businessman Joe Mansueto, the founder of mutual fund researcher Morningstar, has reached a definitive deal with German media giant Bertelsmann to buy business magazines Inc. and Fast Company, according to a report in Sunday's New York Post.

John Hancock on Monday unveiled a new leadership development program for new and existing financial agents interested in pursuing a career in management.

Waddell & Reed Financial said on Monday it has appointed Terry L. Lister chief regulatory officer of its two broker/dealerf subsidiaries, Waddell & Reed and Ivy Funds Distributor.