Money Management Executive Latest News

The Vanguard Group has added a series of new tools to its Web site, some of which make it easier for investors to find Vanguard offerings comparable to their non-Vanguard holdings.

SEC Commissioner Cynthia Glassman last week said she is not sold on the agency's rule proposals requiring an independent chairman and the implementation of a mandatory redemption fee.

Separately managed accounts, considered our nation's hippest new investment product, slowly have been gaining traction overseas as Japanese brokerages have begun to dip their toes in the pool.

ICI President Paul Schott Stevens said last week that his agency is firmly behind reform in the industry and called on the SEC to "administer strong medicine to prevent trading abuses in the future."

Having dodged the U.S. mutual fund industry scandal and a mutual fund share pricing problem of its own back home, AIM Trimark Investments of Toronto has ventured into the U.S. asset management industry for the very first time. AIM Trimark is the $40 billion Canadian investment management subsidiary of Amvescap of London.

The former CEO of Putnam Investments, Lawrence J. Lasser, has settled his severance package dispute with the company and will receive $78 million from the parent firm, Marsh & McLennan.

Securities Industry Association President Mark Lacritz warned that the mutual fund and corporate scandals and resulting new compliance requirements have put both technology and financial services firms in a touch spot, he told 700 delegates at the annual SIA technology management conference in New York.

Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck said he expects scandals afflicting the financial services industry to continue. "There will continue to be new investigations and new revelations. There are still things to find in this industry," Pottruck told a business conference in New York. While declining to elaborate on his statements, he said the industry still employs questionable practices.

Janus Hires Zimmerman to Head Institutional Sales

The notion that the fund scandal is all but over has been gaining steam in the general press and among some in the industry recently, but the reality is that while it has been a long, hard nine months, the mutual fund industry is far from out of the woods. Disinterest should not be mistaken for inactivity.