Money Management Executive Latest News

ING is hardly a well-known financial services brand in the U.S., said Michael McCoy, executive vice president and general manager of ING Funds of West Chester, Pa., in a recent interview in New York.

xCitigroup of New York is expanding its European supermarket, CitiChoice, in early May beyond the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Brussels to include Germany.

Pending legislation in the European Parliament of Luxembourg would allow mutual funds registered in one European country to automatically qualify for a pan-European "passport" that would allow them to sell throughout the European Union. If the bill passes, funds would no longer be required to register in each country. A vote on the bill is expected by late summer.

AIM Capital Management of Houston, Texas will become the sub-adviser to the $170 million INVESCO Tax-Free Bond Fund, pending shareholder approval. The arrangement will go into effect on May 11 and will mark the first cross-adviser relationship between the two U.S. mutual fund groups which are held as separate fund units under a common holding-company, AMVESCAP PLC of London.

Lens Investment Management of Portland, Maine has nominated yet another director for the board of The Pioneer Group of Boston, Lens Investment Management announced today. Lens owns approximately 4.1 percent of Pioneer's stock.

The Y2K threat - real or imaginary - is over. But mutual fund companies can not now divert all of the resources devoted to Y2K preparations to modernizing their technology.

To American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo., March 15 was launch date.

Phil Goldstein - the closed-end fund investor, fund director and leader of proxy fights - is running for the board of directors for the Italy Fund. Goldstein, president of Opportunity Partners LP of Pleasantville, N.Y., plans to spend $30,000 in a campaign to persuade shareholders to elect him and fellow Italy Fund investor Glenn Goodstein of Encino, Calif., to the board. Goldstein also is asking shareholders to vote in favor of opening the Italy Fund, according to the proxy statement. Such a move will eliminate what Goldstein described as chronic discounts to the fund's net asset value.

Gabelli Funds, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Gabelli Asset Management of Rye, New York, has agreed to purchase two mutual funds currently managed by Comstock Partners of Lawrenceville, N.J. Gabelli will become the new adviser and distributor for the funds, the $35 million Comstock Partners Strategy Fund and the $55 million Comstock Partners Capital Value Fund, pending shareholder approval.

A federal district court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against T. Rowe Price Associates of Baltimore in which shareholders in the Rowe Price-Fleming International Stock Fund claimed they paid excessive fees. Fund lawyers said the decision provides new clarity about the minimum allegations a shareholder must make for an excessive fee case to be heard.