Money Management Executive Latest News

Two high-level fund managers at Fidelity Investments have left the company to begin their own investment management organization, according to a company spokesperson.

First Union Corporation of Charlotte, N.C. and Wachovia Corporation of Winston-Salem, N.C. announced today that they have agreed to merge.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of New York will offer a new index fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100 and invests in exchange-traded funds, according to a preliminary prospectus the firm filed April 12 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The downturn in the economy has prompted Putnam Investments of Boston to lay off 256 workers, about four percent of its 6,000 employees, according to a memorandum issued last week by Lawrence J. Lasser, Putnam's CEO and president, to company employees. The memo was released to the public.

Despite a difficult market last year for mutual fund investors, independent fund directors awarded themselves an 11 percent average pay raise in 2000. That represents the largest compensation gain in the past eight years, according to Management Practice, the New York consulting firm that specializes in the governance of mutual funds and annually surveys independent mutual fund directors' compensation.

President Bush's budget proposal for fiscal year 2002 proposes staff reductions in several areas of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the office of investment management which oversees mutual funds, according to an SEC document.

Existing bear market conditions and reduced flows have prompted the Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. to re-open the Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund and the Vanguard Primecap Fund to new investors, the company announced last week.

Barclays Global Investors of London has chosen Investors Financial Service Corp. of Boston to conduct operations for Barclays' U.S.-based asset administration unit, Investors Financial announced last week. The contract is expected to become effective in the second quarter of 2001, according to a statement. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

James Gallagher has been named president of the Manufacturers Investment Trust of Boston. Gallagher is currently chief legal officer for the U.S. division of Manulife Financial of Boston and president of Manulife New York.

The number of funds that have been liquidated in the first quarter of this year is similar to that of last year, but the number of funds introduced in the same period last year far exceeded those introduced this year, according to a report released last week by Wiesenberger/Thomson Financial of Rockville, Md. Forty funds were liquidated in the first three months of 2001, compared to 35 a year ago, according to Wiesenberger. But while 255 funds were introduced in the first quarter of 2000, only 55 have been introduced this year. The most obvious reason is the declining market, which has further increased competition for assets among funds, according to the report.