Putnam Investments of Boston has lost Standard & Poor's Select Fund status for two Putnam funds - not because of poor investment performance or fund manager changes - but because Putnam refuses to provide the monthly and quarterly data S&P of New York says it needs to rate the funds, S&P said in a statement.
S&P requires funds to submit monthly summary statistics and quarterly listings of portfolio holdings in order to be eligible for Select Fund status, an S&P designation awarded funds whose performance, management skill and other factors S&P deems exceptional. About 80 funds now qualify as Select Funds. S&P dropped Putnam Vista and Putnam Investors funds as Select Funds because of Putnam's refusal to provide the added data, S&P said in the statement issued last week.
As a matter of policy, Putnam funds identify their entire holdings every six months and provide a list of each fund's top 10 holdings quarterly, a Putnam spokesperson said. Putnam was not willing to make an exception to the policy for S&P, the spokesperson said.
