Special Program Root Tag

Many in the mutual fund industry expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to give an extension on the Oct. 16 deadline for the anti-timing Rule 22c-2 in the coming days, as many intermediaries have not entered into information-sharing agreements with fund companies and not all fund firms have found a way to extract individual shareholder and trade data from omnibus accounts, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has permanently banned Irving Paul David, the former controller of the Smith Barney World Funds from the financial industry. David did not admit or deny the allegations.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has permanently banned Irving Paul David, the former controller of the Smith Barney World Funds from the financial industry. David did not admit or deny the allegations.

Many in the mutual fund industry expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to give an extension on the Oct. 16 deadline for the anti-timing Rule 22c-2 in the coming days, as many intermediaries have not entered into information-sharing agreements with fund companies and not all fund firms have found a way to extract individual shareholder and trade data from omnibus accounts, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Amaranth Advisors, the troubled Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund, has avoided total liquidation, and might even regroup after a monumental one-month drop of $6 billion, according to Reuters.

The NASD last Tuesday fined three MetLife Securities companies $5 million for allowing late trading of mutual funds, providing inaccurate and misleading information to the NASD and failing to produce e-mails in a timely fashion.

With U.S. midterm elections approaching fast, in a year where experts predict shakeups in the House and Senate, politicians across the nation are working on polishing their rhetoric and preparing the platforms that reflect the issues that concern voters most: healthcare, homeland security and...hedge fund regulation?

Morgan Stanley Funds' board of directors is tweaking both its board committee structure as well as the compensation that independent trustees receive for serving as chairpersons of committees. As of next week, independent trustees who serve as committee chairpersons and/or chairpersons of newly formed sub-committees are in for raises.

While mutual fund companies focus on the upcoming wave of the nation's 77 million retiring Baby Boomers and how to capture that business, they're overlooking another inevitable seismic event.

Putnam Investments parent Marsh & McLennan plans to slash 750 employees from its payroll and undertake several other cost-cutting initiatives, including consolidating locations and retooling its information technology teams. By the end of 2008, Marsh & McLennan hopes to save $350 million.

The New York Stock Exchange and other regulators are shifting the focus of their market-timing investigations from mutual fund companies and hedge funds to individual brokers and their supervisors, according to Susan Merrill chief of enforcement for the NYSE said.

Sun Life Financial Selects Friesen as CFO in U.S.

NEW YORK-Rising interest rates, a sagging housing market, and inscrutable energy prices all blur into a bleak outlook for 2007. But fund managers at Lipper's "Lipper Leaders" symposium last week said there's money to be made for investors. It just won't be easy.

Performance-based fees are scarce in the mutual fund industry and most likely will remain so, due to the complexity of managing them, the lack of industry standards and the fact that they tend to reward portfolio managers more than they do investors.

(Excerpted from sister publication IDD)

An overwhelming majority of 401(k) investors, 69%, believe they lack investment knowledge, and 67% said their fear of market volatility prevents them from managing their 401(k) properly, according to a study commissioned by John Hancock Retirement Plan Services.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to speed up its approval process for exchange-traded funds.

It remains to be seen whether Marsh & McLennan can find an acceptable bid for its Putnam Investments unit, according to an analyst, in view of the steady outflow of assets under management at Putnam the past nine years.

St. Paul Travelers introduced a new insurance product for investment advisors Thursday. Aimed at protecting the business risks of mutual funds, hedge funds and other investment advisors, it covers various types of exposure, such as failure to adhere to investment guidelines or failure to disclose risks.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Military Personnel Financial Services Protection Act on Thursday, by a vote of 418:3.