Money Management Executive Latest News

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday the settlement of enforcement actions against three former Invesco executives for their role in a market-timing scheme that allowed preferred clients to make excessive trades in exchange for sticky assets.

Fidelity Investments said on Tuesday that it lowered the expenses on five of its equity index funds offered primarily to individual and group retirement plans, capping the ratios at 10 basis points.

Newly disclosed proxy records indicate that Vanguard wields considerable power on Wall Street. Last year, the fund giant contested nominations of board members in more than half of the companies in its mutual funds' portfolios, according to the company's Web site.

Accounting software supplier Global Investment Systems, which provides fund accounting software to the mutual fund, securities and alternative investment industries, has rolled out a new advertising campaign this month.

State Street Global Alliance has announced a definitive agreement to buy a minority interest in GovernanceMetrics International.

If mutual funds do not consider mergers, they will be forced to close down, Reuters reports. Because of more educated and skeptical investors and new costs thanks to the ongoing scandal, moves like that recently made by BlackRock Financial to buy State Street Research will not only become the norm, but a necessity.

To keep talented and honest people, mutual fund firms would be best advised to adopt a sort of "corporate culture," a Morningstar analyst attests.

Franklin Resources Inc. said in a filing that it may be in trouble from the state of California for revenue-sharing payments made to brokerage fims, Dow Jones reports. In addition, the company said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer told the company that enforcement action would be authorized.

PFPC Inc., a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., announced Wednesday that it will offer a middle-office suite of services for both traditional and alternative asset managers in Europe.

Assets in variable annuities totaled $1,047,148 at the end of the second quarter of the year, up a scant 1.7% from $1,029,484 at the end of the first quarter but up 18% from $886,308 in the second quarter of 2003, the National Association for Variable Annuities announced.