Special Program Root Tag

Mellon Financial Corp. of Pittsburgh is expanding rapidly into the fast-growing China market with plans to set up a fund management venture and apply for investment quotas, both incoming and outgoing, according to Reuters.Mellon established its first offices in China this year and sees its team of four staffers expanding to 40 by the end of next year.

It is usually a rough estimate as to how much money hedge funds and private equity companies actually make, but this has changed. A securities filing by Fortress Investment Group, a $26 billion investment company, provides a rare peek behind the curtain of secrecy that typically governs the world of alternative investments, according to The New York Times.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake warned Friday that monitoring money flows is no longer a reliable measure for gauging economic growth or inflation, Reuters reports.

NEW YORK—The hedge fund industry can expect more consolidation, as the shooting star funds launched in the early part of the decade begin to burn out, according to David Smith, chief investment director at London-based fund-of-fund manager GAM.

Vanguard is reducing the fees on its offerings in the Vanguard 529 College Savings Plan, sponsored by Nevada, by 10 to 12 basis points, the company announced Thursday. As a result, investors will save more than $2 million a year, Vanguard estimated.

Fidelity Investments on Thursday announced it has launched on online trading education tool called Trading Knowledge center.

Forward Management, advisor to the Sierra Club Mutual Funds has launched a large-cap environmental index.

Vanguard has re-opened the Vanguard Strategic Equity Fund and increased the fund’s minimum initial investment to $10,000.

Strong inflows and higher fees boosted Man Group’s profits 40% in the first half of the year to $637 million, or 31.1 cents a share, the company announced Thursday. This was up from $455 million, or 23 cents a share, in the first half of 2005.

Three subsidiaries of The Hartford agreed to pay $55 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges that they used assets from the company’s mutual funds and annuities, in the form of commissions from directed brokerage business, to pay for marketing and distribution costs.

Investment firms, which traditionally have targeted institutional and high-net-worth investors willing to pluck down $25 million or more on risky private equity investments, are now raising money from individual investors, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In spite of increased warnings and media coverage about the real danger that Social Security could go into default in the coming years, many Americans, 23%, believe Social Security will be their primary source of income in retirement, according to a survey of 1,000 people by the Retirement Corporation of America, a registered investment advisory firm.

Chief compliance officers’ annual reports to their board of directors need to strike a balance between an easily understood summary and details, speakers at an SEI Investments’ forum for CCOs said. It’s also important to ask boards what their preference is, they said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into kickbacks from fund administration companies to 27 mutual fund firms in an attempt to secure their business has extended to HighMark Funds, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a filing with the SEC.

U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.)—who will be promoted from senior Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee to chairman following Tuesday’s election—has promised to go easy on hedge fund regulations but scrutinize executive pay and work to create more affordable housing, Bloomberg reports.

The Nasdaq Stock Market and Jasdaq Securities Exchange are continuing to explore setting up coordinated efforts, including a capital alliance, Jasdaq President and CEO Takashi Tsutsui tells The Wall Street Journal.

Having entrusted its board of directors to have a great deal of input on the possible sale of Putnam Investments, the chairman of the board, John Hill, told the Boston Globe that the board would like to find a buyer that will keep management in place. While it isn’t a requirement that management stay on, Hill added, it is preferable, since the company is finally showing signs of renewed strength.

Janus Chief Executive Officer Gary Black is relinquishing his role as chief investment officer as well, in order to focus on boosting the firm’s assets, which, at $158 billion, are about half of what they were at a peak of $300 billion at the end of the bull market.

BISYS has made an offer to the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle charges related to financial restatements filed Aug. 10, 2004 and April 26, 2006. If the SEC and the court overseeing this case accept the settlement, BISYS will pay $25.1 million.

Barclays Bank has signed an agreement to acquire Indexchange Investment from Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank for $307 million in cash.