- Money Management Executive
Marsh & McLennan Cos., which agreed to pay $850 million to settle charges of bid-rigging brought against it by New York regulators, may fork over a lot less than that amount, thanks to a tax deduction that could shave hundreds of millions of dollars from the headline figure, The Wall Street Journal reports.
February 8 - Money Management Executive
Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin last Tuesday sued A.G. Edwards for allowing at least one of its representatives to market time mutual funds on behalf of two offshore hedge funds. One of the fund's market-timing trades was nearly $2 billion, according to the complaint.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
An independent consultant said that rapid in-and-out trading in mutual funds at Putnam Investments cost investors as much as $100 million, a figure that is 10 times the previous estimate of damages.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
Separately managed accounts witnessed strong growth again in 2004, as assets under management grew by 15.9% to $576.1 billion, the Money Management Institute reported. MMI predicts that number will reach $1.3 trillion by 2008, primarily due to IRA rollovers, which comprised 25% of the industry's $30 billion of net flows in 2003 and are expected to reach 40% by 2008.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
Marsh & McLennan, the nation's largest insurance broker, last week agreed to an $850 million settlement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for conspiring to rig insurance bids and steer business to preferred insurers in exchange for lucrative kickbacks.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering point-of-sale disclosure forms that would reveal to investors any revenue sharing or conflicts of interest between broker/agents and mutual fund companies. While fund executives may worry that disclosure will deal a serious blow to sales, industry insiders are skeptical of the forms' value and say revenue sharing is far too critical to the industry for even the most effective disclosure to put an end to it.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
The Massachusetts state pension board announced last week that it will not invest any new money in Fidelity Investments, reprimanding the world's largest fund company for the manner in which it has responded to the board's questions regarding a federal investigation of its trading desk.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
The Securities and Exchange Commission is drafting a proposal that would offer mutual fund investors more information on how much their funds spend to buy and sell securities. Working in tandem with the NASD, the proposal would push for a disclosure of a five-year history of spending on commissions, in both dollar terms and as a percentage of a fund's net asset value, allowing for easy comparison across funds. It will also urge funds to report the average amount they spend on commissions for each share traded.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
Citigroup has announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission may recommend a civil injunction and/or administrative proceedings against Citigroup Asset Management, Citicorp Trust Bank, former asset management unit CEO Thomas Jones and three other people.
February 7 - Money Management Executive
Thwaites Joins National Life To Head Mutual Fund Unit
February 7