Money Management Executive Latest News

The Bank of New York said today that it has struck a deal to purchase Pershing, a clearing services firm, from Credit Suisse First Boston for $2 billion in cash.

The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) has issued a warning to its members to be more diligent about granting breakpoints to mutual fund customers. Such breakpoints, set by mutual fund companies to reduce front-end sales loads by several basis points up to several percentage points, generally occur at the $50,000, $100,000, $250,000 and other high marks, sometimes even reducing front-end fees to zero on share purchases of $1 million or more.

The mutual fund industry’s trade group today endorsed President Bush’s economic plan, which would totally eliminate federal taxes on stock dividends.

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) said today that he will reintroduce a pension reform bill that was approved by the House last year, but eventually fizzled in the Senate. The legislation is intended to avoid the implosions within individual pension plans that were sparked by the meltdown of Enron, WorldCom and other corporations and resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars among retirement investors.

Becky Chambers and her eight-person stock club in Cincinnati are thinking conservative investments and looking beyond individual stocks to "meta funds," funds of funds that invest in, you got it, mutual funds.

Once considered an immovable giant, Fidelity showed in 2002 that it is not immune to the woes of the world, as the company had its fair share of troubles in the tumultuous year for the markets, showing its own signs of fallibility.

Continuing a longstanding trend during this protracted bear market, mutual fund companies cut their advertising budgets 48% in 2002, spending $132.8 million as of Nov. 30, compared to $257.8 million in all of 2001, according to Competitrack, a New York firm that monitors advertising.

The stock of Stilwell Financial ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange last Thursday, replaced by shares of mutual fund giant Janus Capital Group Inc. The event marked the end of Stilwell, Janus' erstwhile parent company, and also signaled the end of a long-fought battle for Janus executives to wrest control of the nation's sixth-largest equity manager..

CDC IXIS Asset Management Advisors Group is one of the few investment management firms with a heritage dating back to 1816, when Louis XVIII of France founded Caisse des Depots Group to protect bank deposits from Napoleon's raids.

While most investment companies separate fixed income and equity departments, MFS Investment Management, Boston, has been emphasizing teamwork between the two.