Money Management Executive Latest News

NEW ORLEANS - With all the shady activity going on within the fund industry of late, a panel of industry experts here at the Investment Company Institute's Operations Conference warned attendees of another set of criminals: those from outside the industry trying to steal personal information to swindle shareholders.

Fidelity Investments' head of global equity trading, Scott DeSano, recently said that the human-based specialist system at the New York Stock Exchange should be eliminated in favor of an electronic system similar to that used by Nasdaq.

Looking to tap its 800 independent broker/dealer clients and 100,000 reps already using its Pershing subsidiary for custody services, The Bank of New York has created a way for these B/D firms to rent a managed account platform for their advisers.

Investors in 401(k)s "appear to be encouraged by the improving stock market during the second quarter," said Jim McCool, senior vice president for Charles Schwab Investor Services, which reviews investor activity for self-directed 401(k) participants. "We saw renewed interest in individual equities, reflected by a 9% increase in asset flows. Overall trading activity increased as well, reaching its highest level since the first quarter of 2002."

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management recently hired C. William Criss as managing director and head of its San Francisco office, a newly created position that the 33-year financial services veteran assumed last month.

GAM has hired Craig Brownell as director, institutional, a job in which he will be responsible for development of the firm's institutional business.

McCamish Systems has reorganized its operations division and promoted a number of its executives in the process, a result of continued client growth from new and existing clients, Gordan Beckham, Jr., president and CEO of McCamish, recently announced.

Despite the scandalous black cloud that has settled over the fund industry, several investment management companies are still happily shopping for appealing mutual fund complexes, or even a single fund or two.

Heads are rolling all over the mutual fund industry, as allegations that funds gave special trading privileges to big clients are rattling many of the industry's top firms, and some say this is still just the beginning.

NEW ORLEANS - Regulators at the Investment Company Institute's Operations Conference here, in the crescent city, said they will be focusing more on electronic communications and management's attitude towards internal controls as they go forward, in an attempt to be more proactive in examining firms' internal controls.