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Genworth Taps Reynolds For New England District

NEW YORK - The global economic cycle has peaked, according to chief investment strategists at Deutsche Bank, and a sideways equity market in the U.S. and Europe is driving the world's smarter money managers to pay greater attention to Asia, as well as "sideline investments" that leverage burgeoning merger and acquisition activity.

Score one for fixed income mutual fund back-office operations teams.Having received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, the Fixed Income Clearing Corp. (FICC) will now permit buy-side firms, including mutual funds and other registered investment institutions, to join as sponsored members on a limited basis - a first for any Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) subsidiary.

Canadian fund giant CI Fund Management has unveiled its plan to acquire troubled Amvescap, parent to the AIM Funds and the former Invesco Funds, for $7 billion in cash, the Globe and Mail reported last week.

With the popularity of hedge funds on the rise, many retail investors may be interested in cashing in on the same kind of strategies in the more familiar format of mutual funds, but such funds have floundered. Among 29 mutual funds listed in Bloomberg that are in a market-neutral category, average return has been only 2.4% over the past three years ending June 24, said Bloomberg News columnist Chet Currier. Average stock funds posted 10.9% over the same period.

By a narrow margin, actively managed large-cap mutual funds on average bested the S&P 500 during the first half of 2005, according to Standard & Poor's. The defeat was far from resounding, with only 52.5% of such funds topping the index.

At the end of September, investors in Vanguard Group's mutual funds will no longer be able to buy shares of funds they had sold within the previous 60 days by phone or Internet. Instead, investors can send in a check by mail, the Associated Press reports.

American Express Financial Advisors (AEFA) has reached a settlement with the New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation regarding undisclosed conflicts of interest in mutual fund sales between January 1999 and March 2003. The company has agreed to pay total fines, penalties, reimbursement and restitution of $7.4 million, which includes $5 million in state fines and penalties, up to $2 million in restitution to New Hampshire investors, and reimbursement of $375,000 for the cost of the investigation.

More banks are certain to be on the hook, following the announcement of Bank of America's settlement with the Massachusetts Securities Division. Most recently, Citizens Financial Group has raised the division's hackles by failing to produce subpoenaed employee e-mails, originally requested in mid-February that was to have been fulfilled by early March.

Bank of America and Massachusetts regulators reached an agreement yesterday related to the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank's variable annuities sales practices.

A recent survey of 30 financial journalists revealed that the media views hedge fund managers as much more savvy about the markets than their mutual fund counterparts, with every respondent agreeing on that point.

Timing and patience are the keys to boosting mutual-fund returns according to a new study from Morningstar Inc.

Vega Asset Management USA took a hit in June with a $700 million decline, according to a July 13 report from The Wall Street Journal.

TIAA-CREF has taken a significant step that is symbolic for the firm and will affect the bottom line for many of its retail mutual fund investors. The traditionally low-cost firm is proposing changes that would dramatically raise fees on its actively managed retail funds, according to MarketWatch.

The New York State Attorney General's Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission have joined the investigation at Bear Stearns into how the firm allegedly enabling a hedge fund to market time a number of mutual funds, according to a company filing with the SEC on Monday. The U.S. Attorney General's office, meanwhile, is looking into how the firm may have valued $16 million worth of complex debt derivatives, according to report today.

There was a day not long ago when the words "market timing" failed to raise so much as a murmur among mutual fund executives and state and federal regulators.

Scott DeSano, Fidelity Investments' high-profile head trader, is now working for the firm's strategic new business development unit, Fidelity confirmed Tuesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is hip to the need for vigilance over the amount of leverage hedge funds use to boost returns, although it has no desire to regulate it, a senior SEC official said.

Mellon Financial announced on Monday that it will provide back-office services for Stephens Investment Management Group, a division of Stephens Inc.

In an effort to expand its industry-leading exchange traded fund, Nasdaq Global Funds has reached a deal with ALPS Mutual Fund Services to wholesale its Nasdaq-100 index tracking stock, popularly known as the QQQ. Terms of the agreement were not released.