Money Management Executive Latest News

Vanguard Investments Europe, which has traditionally targeted the institutional investor, is now setting its sights on retail distribution on the continent, initially in Belgium.

WASHINGTON – A model regulation on the sale of fixed and variable annuities to seniors has hit turbulent airspace a week from the New York meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Hedge funds gained value in May, according to the CSFB/Tremont Hedge Fund Index, which on Monday reported a 2.71% rise for the month.

As the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets met Wednesday for a hearing on the Mutual Funds Integrity and Fee Transparency Act, the Investment Company Institute threw its support behind many provisions of the bill.

In spite of the continued market rally in May, equity mutual funds attracted $8.2 billion in the month, down from the $14 billion in April, Lipper reported Wednesday. It was the first time in a year that that equity funds had three straight months of inflows, and the types of equity funds that investors preferred were conservative – namely income, balanced and convertible securities funds.

Many 401(k) investors are not well diversified, Reuters reports.

Investment banks that bucked the market downturn with fixed-income issues may soon be scrambling to find additional bond underwriting business, Reuters reports. Many investment banks posted strong revenues in the first quarter due to the boom in the bond market, and are likely to report strong earnings again in the second. But the big question many bond analysts are now asking is whether this can last.

ING Funds has selected the Bank of New York to provide fund accounting, custody, securities lending and foreign exchange services for the ING Funds, comprising approximately $40 billion of mutual fund assets. The assets represent those of ING Funds and its affiliated fund complexes, including the former Pilgrim and Aetna Funds, as well as various variable annuity portfolios.

Several mutual fund companies and investment advisors that have taken steps to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proxy voting reporting rules are ill prepared to continue the task significantly beyond the Aug. 6 deadline.

WASHINGTON – Tensions ran high during a general session at the Regulatory Affairs Conference here, sponsored by the National Association for Variable Annuities.