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Participants and beneficiaries of the MBNA Corporation 401k Plus Savings Plan have brought an Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) class-action suit against MBNA for alleged breach of fiduciary duties, with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz of New York handling the case, to be heard before the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

The National Investment Company Services Association has just announced a new vice chairman and four new members of the board.

WASHINGTON - The very expansion of the hedge fund market is reducing its investing opportunities, and slowly forcing the most cunning hedge fund managers to look to the long term.

NEW YORK - The monied continued to make money as the number of high-net-worth individuals and their investment assets continued to swell in 2004, according to the annual World Wealth Report released by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini at Merrill's world headquarters on June 9th.

The National Investment Company Service Association was incorrectly identified in a Wednesday, June 29 news item titled, "Evergreen President Tapped as NICSA Vice Chair." NICSA is the proper name.

Federated Investors, one the nation's biggest largest money managers, announced plans to acquire three equity mutual funds from AMCORE Financial's family of 11 Vintage Mutual Funds. The three funds, totaling $163.8 million in assets, will be incorporated into the Federated Capital Appreciation and Federated Stock and Bond funds.

With so many asset managers losing investment management talent to hedge funds, many have struck back by starting hedge fund units of their own.

John Hancock Financial Services, the Boston-based financial services company, continued its fund adoption strategy by entering into a sub-advisory agreement with high-end Boston-based institutional asset manager GMO. According to the agreement, John Hancock will market eight of GMO's funds in addition to the company's existing line of 32 open-end mutual funds, retaining GMO as sub-advisor.

New Jersey's Attorney General, Peter C. Harvey , has reached an agreement with American Express Financial Advisors (AEFA) over allegations that the company failed to reasonably supervise its financial advisers. The case involved a New Jersey broker named Arthur Davidson, who stole over $400,000 from at least 22 clients. Davidson has pleaded guilty to charges of theft by deception.

WASHINGTON - With equity index annuities (EIAs) growing in popularity, particularly through the bank channel, they have again come into the spotlight with securities regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sanctioned Raymond L. Braun, former manager of the New York office of Fiserv Securities, for allegedly overseeing what was known as the Fiserv "New York Market Timing Office."

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted again to approve the rule requiring mutual funds to have an independent chairman, but not before some explosive fireworks.

Bank of America has signed a definitive agreement to buy MBNA, the No. 1 independent global credit-card lender, for $35 billion, MarketWatch has just reported.

The National Investment Company Service Association has just announced a new vice chairman and four new members of the board.Peggy Schooley, president of Evergreen Service Co., is now NICSA vice chairman, a new office for the NICSA governing board. Schooley joined Evergreen earlier this year from Pioneer Investments, where she was president and CEO with responsibility for Pioneer Investment Management Shareholder Services. She has more than 20 years of experience in the mutual fund industry and has served on various operations, broker/dealer and transfer agent committees of the Investment Company Institute and the National Investment Company Service Association.

The investigation into inappropriate gifts from brokers to Fidelity Investments traders, potentially influencing their directed-brokerage decisions, has reached the upper echelons of the Boston fund giant, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.Investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission are now joining ongoing grand jury and Justice Department probes into gifts from unnamed brokerage firms, people familiar with the situation have told the Journal.

Participants and beneficiaries of the MBNA Corporation 401k Plus Savings Plan have brought an Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) class-action suit against MBNA for alleged breach of fiduciary duties, with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP of New York handling the case, to be heard before the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.The case, Cannon v. MBNA, also names some of the company's officers and directors, its pension and 401(k) plan committee, Dwight Asset Management Company, along with the plan's investment manager.

AmSouth, a Birmingham, Ala.-based regional bank with operations across the southeast, is selling its family of 23 mutual funds, with $5.5 billion of assets under management, to Pioneer Investment Management.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted again to approve the rule requiring mutual funds to have an independent chairman, but not before some explosive fireworks.

CI Funds, Canada's third-largest fund company, announced Monday it has officially changed its name to CI Investments to more accurately reflect the broad array of financial products the company offers.

Billionaire businessman Joe Mansueto, the founder of mutual fund researcher Morningstar, has reached a definitive deal with German media giant Bertelsmann to buy business magazines Inc. and Fast Company, according to a report in Sunday's New York Post.