Money Management Executive Latest News

Fund manager MFS Investment Management announced Monday that fourth-quarter sales totaled $100 million, reversing outflows of $2.5 billion in the third quarter.

Fund-tracking firm Morningstar of Chicago announced Monday the launch of a set of Internet-based applications to help advisers at brokerage firms comply with federal regulations requiring them to inform clients of discounts on mutual fund breakpoints.

Citigroup announced Friday 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, Reuters reports.

Federated Investors indicated Monday it is currently in negotiations with state and federal regulators over trading abuses by some of its employees. The Pittsburgh-based asset manager added that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York State Attorney General are deciding whether to recommend civil enforcement action against two officers.

The lackluster stock market performance so far this year reportedly may foreshadow a weak year for equity fund investors who subscribe to a theory known as the January effect.

Mutual fund investors who put their money in index-based investments edged out others who bet on actively managed funds in all but one of the major style categories, according to a newly released study by Standard & Poor's. Only large-cap actively managed mutual funds beat out their index-based competitors in the same style category.

Growth Fund of America, the flagship investment fund at Capital Research Group, gained $30 billion of new assets last year to become the largest actively traded U.S. stock fund. The $95 billion fund, which trades in 14 share classes, is second in terms of assets under management among U.S. equity funds to Vanguard's $107 billion Vanguard 500 Index Fund.

The fight for independence may already be a foregone conclusion, but fierce battles are still being waged.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has unearthed yet a new type of mutual fund market timing, charging an Urbana, Ill.-based Internet day trader with three counts of violating exchange laws. The case further underscores the Commission's heightened scrutiny of the fund industry.

As recently as last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission advised mutual fund chief compliance officers to, essentially, talk among themselves to figure out their demanding new roles. While that hardly provides executives in these critical, newly created jobs with the guidance they've been seeking, a new examination checklist may provide some of the keys.