Special Program Root Tag

Stupidity: The Main Operational Risk

Omnibus accounts consolidate the trade activity of multiple shareholders in an investment vehicle into a handful of trades, making it difficult to identify individual shareholder activity. How do in-house counsel and mutual fund boards make sure that their omnibus accounts are on the up and up with regulators?

You may think your firm runs like a well-oiled machine. But what happens if you think again?

Financial services firms can get themselves caught in their own tracks on social media, worrying excessively about Securities and Exchange Commission rules on disclosures, marketing and communication, as well as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority guidelines. Here's what to do.

Because of its increasing complexity and impacts on financial firms beyond banks, firms that run registered investment funds are hopeful that the Volcker Rule gets ‘re-proposed’ before it goes into effect in July.

PIMCO and the Vanguard Group received the highest favorable ratings from prospective institutional investors amidst leading asset managers, according to a new study released by Cogent Research.

In January, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority released Regulatory Notice 12-03 regarding heightened supervision of “complex products.”

The Altman Group, an affiliate of American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, has rebranded to AST Fund Solutions, LLC and formally launched its new brand at the 2012 Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference held this week in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Castle Rock Investment Company has added Kristen Sanchez as Director of Communications. In her new role, Sanchez will gdevelop and implement a strategy to effectively communicate the firmfs ability to help plan sponsors reduce their liability while optimizing their plans,h according to the firm.

What exactly makes an alternative mutual fund “alternative”?

Mutual funds may have been an American innovation. But asset managers will now go to China, Brazil, India or wherever returns can be found, said Alan Reid, founder of Forward Fund Management, at the Investment Company Institute’s Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference.

ICI general counsel Karrie McMillan said it is “very interesting” that commissioner Elisse Walter indicates the SEC is ‘open to ideas’ on how to reform the money market fund industry.

What is “really lacking” in the cost-benefit analysis required of SEC rule-making by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act? Michael Downer has an idea. Cost-benefit analysis.

Most investment fund clients have no idea how much their investments are costing them in terms of management fees, commissions and other hidden costs, according to money manager Greg Phelps of Redrock Wealth Management.

Mutual fund research companies Access Data and Strategic Insight have entered into a partnership pooling together their resources for financial data gathering.

State Street Corporation today unveiled the State Street Fund InsightsSM Valuation Toolkit to provide timely industry insights for fund managers and directors and help them better manage data.

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Elisse Walter told fund executives gathered at the ICI Mutual Funds conference to stop discussing the reform of money market mutual funds through “a public volley of slogans.’’

The liquidity of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, as well as their operating costs, could be collateral damage, depending on how the Volcker Rule precluding proprietary trading by banks gets implemented, ICI general counsel Karrie McMillan will argue Monday at the 2012 ICI Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference in Phoenix.

Securities and Exchange Commission proposals to require capital buffers and embargoes on withdrawals or to let the net asset value of money market funds float could destroy the gains made by reforms enacted in 2010 , ICI general counsel Karrie McMillan will proclaim Monday at the 2012 ICI Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference in Phoenix.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will introduce duplicative and inconsistent regulation if it persists in bringing mutual funds under its purview, ICI general counsel Karrie McMillan will assert Monday at the 2012 ICI Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference in Phoenix.