Money Management Executive Latest News

The Ontario Securities Commission announced late last week that Franklin-Templeton agreed to pay investors $49.1 million for allowing rapid in-and-out trading in some of its funds by three institutional investors from February 1999 to February 2003, according to The Toronto Star.

The National Association of Securities Dealers has sanctioned Ramy M. Shaalan, a former research analyst at Rydex Funds, with embezzled $96,000 through a scheme he concocted while at Rydex. Shaalan, who did not admit or deny wrongdoing, was banned from working in the securities industry.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson took advantage of his time before an audience of leading legal minds to sharply criticize the role some lawyers have played in the ongoing mutual fund industry scandal.

Janus Capital cut a bulk of its Bay Isle Financial institutional money management team, including co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Bill Schaff, Money Management Executive has learned.

Executives at investments firms have a new set of priorities in 2005 compared to the ones they had at the end of 2003, according to recently released research by TowerGroup.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission considers the merits of instituting performance fees in the mutual fund industry, the agency needs to be careful not to scare away firms from using it, according to Morningstar.

Nuveen Investments Inc. said on Thursday that the company's Symphony Asset Management unit is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for overcharging performance fees to an unaffiliated family of mutual funds, Dow Jones reports.

Market timing in Putnam Investments mutual funds lowered long-term investors' returns by $48.5 million, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday. And market timing by Putnam employees depleted returns by an additional $4.4 million, including interest. As a result, the firm must now pay repay a total of $153.5 million to customers out of a total $193.5 million in fines and restitution.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday approved a new rule to combat market timing that would leave the decision to impose redemption fees on mutual funds up to the board of directors and allow funds to hold intermediaries more accountable for abusive trading.

A new study by kasina, a financial services consulting firm, outlines ways to increase enrollment and participation in defined contribution retirement plans.