Money Management Executive Latest News

Kurt Schoknecht is the CEO and director of Alliance Capital Management International of New York, overseeing the firm's offshore and international businesses. Schoknect recently discussed his career, ACM International's key markets outside the U.S., and the firm's strategies to develop those markets with Mutual Fund Market News reporter, Andrew Greene. An edited account of their conversation follows.

MIAMI - Globalization is the most critical issue facing the mutual fund industry, according to industry executives gathered here last week. Globalization presents both enormous opportunities and challenges for the U.S. mutual fund industry, according to executives who spoke at the National Investment Company Service Association's operations conference.

Mutual fund shareholders are increasingly wary about taxes on their investments and say that taxes are an important investment consideration, according to a recent survey.

Mutual funds hit investors with the highest capital gains distributions ever in 2000, according to Wiesenberger/Thomson Financial of Rockville, Md., a mutual fund tracking service.

President Bush has designated Laura Unger acting chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing Arthur Levitt who stepped down Feb. 9.

Bank of Montreal of Toronto and Fullgoal Fund Management of Beijing have agreed to develop an asset management company that will operate in China and some other markets, according to Bank of Montreal. The asset management company will create and distribute mutual fund products in China, introduce Chinese mutual funds to international investors and make available to Chinese investors a range of mutual funds from around the world, according to Bank of Montreal.

The BISYS Group of Little Falls, N.J. has announced that it will acquire Boston Institutional Group of Boston, an outsourcing services provider for mutual fund complexes, for $35 million. The purchase will add 30 major mutual fund complexes to BISYS's customer list, according to the company. The transaction is expected to be completed by May, according to BISYS.

Christopher Claus has been named CEO and president of USAA Investment Management of San Antonio, Texas, replacing Michael Roth who will retire. Claus was formerly vice president of sales and service with the firm and has been with the firm since 1994,

Over the past year there has been a lot of talk about exchange-traded funds. Industry conferences have been held on the subject, the media has written widely about them and analysts have researched them. But, are they really worth all of the attention? Do they really pose a threat to mutual funds? After all, total exchange-traded fund assets are equivalent to less than one percent of total U.S. mutual fund assets.

NEW YORK - Offering account aggregation can be a good method of marketing a mutual fund family, however there are pitfalls that can undermine the benefits of the arrangement. That was the message conveyed by industry executives at a conference here earlier this month on mutual fund systems and technology sponsored by Marcus Evans of Chicago.