Special Program Root Tag

2010 is turning out to be the year of Fund Marketers' Lib.

When Chris Dawson managed investment funds at JPMorgan, he had to pull together information from 29 different systems. He used different applications for allocating assets, choosing stocks, assessing fixed-income products, overlaying currency effects and looking at increasingly complex derivatives. Oh, and he had to piece together price and index data from Bloomberg and Barclays Capital, as well as other tools for creating benchmarks or managing risks.

Loomis Sayles has launched the Loomis Sayles Multi-Asset Real Return Fund, which will invest in a variety of asset classes around the world, including derivatives, commodities and REITs, to combat all types of inflationary environments, including: inflation, debtflation, stagflation and deflation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission released its report on May 6’s so-called Flash Crash, but did little else to clarify whether there was any malfeasance involved or whether the report would eventually lead to changes in the way trading is regulated.

Global bond and equity investors are not just relying on the U.S. to power economic growth in the world anymore, said presenters at a Natixis Global Asset Management press luncheon in New York Sept. 29.

The joint report of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission on the May 6 Flash Crash is out; and, as expected, the trigger event was found to be a large, programmed effort by a mutual fund complex to sell E-Mini contracts.

Two weeks after announcing a new 529 college savings partnership with the state of Nevada, Putnam Investments said it plans to expand sales of the program nationally.

UMB Financial Corp. has added a leg to its distribution structure for health savings accounts.

The Great Recession and increasing concerns about the future of Social Security have led Americans to find new ways to build retirement income, according to a new survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America has honored McDonald’s for having the best retirement plan, in its inaugural Plan Sponsor of the Year Award.

Dodge and Cox has launched the Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds-International Stock Fund, an Ireland-domiciled UCITS (undertaking for collective investment in transferrable securities).

The use of social media by asset managers has grown significantly in the past two years to the point where 45% of firms today are using outlets like Twitter and Facebook in some way, according to the Corporate Insight report, “To ‘Friend Is the Trend,” which will be published in October.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged two State Street Bank and Trust Co. employees for allegedly misleading investors about their exposure to subprime investments.

Long-term mutual funds took in an estimated $5.75 billion in the week ended Sept. 22, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday.

Lindner Capital Advisors is offering the Equinox MutualHedge Fund, a managed futures solution, to non-accredited retail investors. Equinox Fund Management is providing the underlying MutualHedge instrument.

The House Wednesday passed the Regulated Investment Company Modernization Act, which updates mutual fund tax regulations for the first time in more than 20 years.

State Street Global Advisors has hired Scott Ebner as managing director and global head of ETF product development. Based in London, Ebner reports to James Ross, senior managing director and global head of exchange-traded funds at SSGA.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index reading of the outlook of institutional investors showed a four-point decline in September to 88, down from 92 in August. In North America, the drop was more pronounced; the confidence level fell 7.3 points to 87.9 from August’s reading of 95.2.

The willingness of mutual fund shareholders to take substantial or above-average risk remained at 30% of all mutual fund-owning households in May 2010, the same as in May 2009, the Investment Company Institute said.

A state regulator publicly released confidential information on thousands of customers of Morgan Keegan & Co., the investment banking and brokerage firm, the Wall Street Journal reported.