Money Management Executive Latest News

Mutual fund company Franklin Resources said on Thursday it has raised its quarterly cash dividend to 10 cents a share, Reuters reports.

Fidelity Investments said late Thursday that it disciplined 14 stock traders and that two others have left the company amid an ongoing investigation into whether they accepted excessive gifts from brokers to whom they directed business.

Seven Canadian financial services firms will pay nearly $163 million (C$200) to settle charges that they permitted preferred customers to engage in rapid short-term trading in their funds at the expense of long-term shareholders, Reuters reports.

The Investment Company Institute will lobby for tax reductions on capital gains distributions in 2005.

First Command Financial Services, a leading seller of financial products to military personnel, agreed Wednesday to pay $12 million to settle allegations that it used shady sales practices to pitch mutual funds to thousands of enlisted men and women over the last five years.

PlusFunds Group Inc., a New York hedge fund manager, said Wednesday that Gabriel Bousbib, its president and chief executive officer, has resigned to pursue other interests. Bousbib is to advise the board of directors until Feb. 28 to help ease the transition to a successor who is to be announced shortly.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer this week served Morningstar Associates with a subpoena for documents related to the mutual fund research firm’s consulting services for retirement plan providers, CBS MarktWatch reports.

The president of the Investment Company Institute called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to rearm itself next year with tough-minded regulatory agendas aimed at policing the mutual fund industry.

The nation’s largest pension fund, formally known as the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, threw its weight behind a growing chorus of critics who oppose President Bush’s plans to privatize the American Social Security system, CBS MarketWatch reports.

Cohen & Steers Inc. extended its reach into European markets this week by closing a deal to acquire 50% of Houlihan Rovers SA, a Belgium-based fund manager, Reuters reports.