Special Program Root Tag

HSBC Securities settled with the Investment Dealers Association of Canada Wednesday for market timing 14 mutual funds more than 800 times for one client between Jan. 1, 2002 and July 1, 2002. HSBC Canada agreed to pay $1,163,192 as part of the settlement.

Way up from the $6.16 billion inflow from a month earlier, July's inflow was just less than $11.9 billion, 2005's monthly average. Experts said that investors warmed to rising markets in July and pumped $10.08 billion of new money into stock mutual funds.

The past few days have seen the investment management industry get two black eyes. Investors are seeking $100 missing from the Bayou hedge fund, and the head of Canada's mutual fund association resigned in disgrace, with $70 million missing from his own firm, Norbourg.

State Street is offering 15 more exchange-traded funds within its StreetTracks family, Morningstar reports. The new ETFs will consist of large-cap, mid-cap value, mid-growth, mid-blend and small-cap.

Integra Capital has selected State Street Global Advisors to co-manage a piece of the C$85.5 million Integra Bond Fund.

According to a recent study by Van Hedge Fund Advisors International, hedge fund assets will grow to $6 trillion by the year 2015.

The former chairman and the president of Security Trust Company pled guilty Tuesday in New York County Supreme Court to state criminal market-timing and late-trading charges.

The media is beginning to jump on the Roth 401(k) bandwagon - but whether it will take off with the investing public is a matter of some tax debate. At present, most experts believe those with the highest salaries will take part, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Citing the fact that Janus has already earmarked $100 million for investor restitution from its $226 million settlement with SEC and state regulators, a Federal court judge in Baltimore indicated he will allow class-action lawsuits to proceed against the firm - but that they may not result in further payouts.

Shareholders in Bayou Group's funds have been feeling a little uneasy ever since the refund checks that Bayou sent to investors bounced and the firm failed to answer their phone calls, The New York Times. The funds under question with state and federal officials are the Bayou Fund LLC and Bayou Fund Ltd., from which $440 million is reportedly missing.

Japan Post, a financial institution holding the most assets worldwide has selected Goldman Sachs, Nomura Holdings Inc., and Daiwa Securities Group to run its three new funds, starting in October of this year, Reuters reports.

Martin Druffner, the former Prudential broker, is planning on pleading guilty to the charges against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said his lawyer, Michael Collera, TheStreet.com reports.

TrimTabs Investment Research--an institutional research company--has just launched its own investment firm, TrimTabs Asset Management. The TrimTabs Absolute Return Fund LP is its first foray into the fund world and will debut on Sept. 1.

Nick Adams of Boston-based Wellington Management oversees a hedge fund that is reported to have produced gains of 40 percent a year over the past 10 years. Small investors can also avail themselves of Adams' skills through First Financial Fund Inc., a fund that Adams has managed since it was launched in 1986.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston has charged a second man in the rapid trading and subsequent cover-up scheme at Prudential Securities.

Michel Fragasso, the chairman of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, stepped down abruptly Thursday following RCMP police raids at various Montreal and Toronto offices of Norbourg Asset Management, where he is a senior vice president.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta is challenging one of the Securities and Exchange Commission's key legal tools, according to a report late last week from The Wall Street Journal, and it could lead to a restructuring of the regulator's use of what's commonly known as civil injunctions.

Global exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have been drawing in investors , and that trend does not appear to be slowing, according to figures from the Investment Company Institute. Overall, ETF assets have been booming, with combined assets of all ETFs reaching $252.32 billion in July 2005, an impressive 4% increase from the previous month.

Fidelity Investments - the country's leader in mutual fund management - is joining Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston and CitiGroup to provide the equity necessary to form Boston Equities Exchange (BeX), a new electronic stock exchange. BeX will be operated by Boston Stock Exchange, a failing exchange that lost almost $2 million in just the past two years.

A new Morgan Stanley director has ties that may generate extra regulatory scrutiny. Roy J. Bostock is connected to a Morgan Stanley hedge fund through his son-in-law, Daniel Waters.