Special Program Root Tag

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) has expanded its variable insurance funds business and is rebranding them under Mercury Advisors, MLIM's non-proprietary brand.

The change in Hong Kong regulation to allow sales of some hedge funds to retail investors, a reform that is also under consideration at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is about to face even more relaxation, as securities regulators there are preparing to approve an even wider use of this increasingly popular investment vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reports. Since this $1 trillion industry's launch, generally attributed to the late 1940s, hedge funds have been historically designed as investment pools for high-net-worth individuals and various institutions. This was until regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore started approving hedge funds for common folks. As of today, Hong Kong has approved 13 hedge funds for retail investors, while Singapore has given the green light to four. By type, about a half them are the Funds of Funds.

Access Data said on Tuesday that it has launched a new format for reporting data to shareholders and regulators, furthering its efforts to improve transparency at the omnibus account level.

Regulators are starting to take a closer look at the prevalent practice at many brokerages of switching customers from traditional, commission-based accounts to asset-, or fee-based accounts, according to a BusinessWeek article.

Online broker E*Trade Financial has made an unsolicited offer to buy rival discount broker Ameritrade Holding, according to reports Monday.

Fidelity Investments' recent management reshuffle may be a sign of merger deals to come at the Boston-based fund company, says Charles Jaffe in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A task force organized by a unit of the Investment Company Institute, the investment management industry's leading trade group, has determined that oversight of multiple funds by quality independent directors enhances the efficiencies and effectiveness of a fund family and drives shareholder value.

A.G. Edwards said on Monday that the NASD has recommended disciplinary actions against the company in connection with various mutual fund transactions, Dow Jones reports.

Russell Investment Group has promoted Jamie Axford to managing director of national accounts for its U.S. distribution business.

Federal regulators must be careful not to adversely affect mutual fund companies by over-regulating them, Paul Schott Stevens, president of the Investment Company Institute, said in a testimony on Tuesday before the House of Financial Services. Stevens lauded the efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission in putting into place additional regulatory reforms since New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer unearthed trading scandals in the $8 trillion mutual fund industry nearly two years ago.

The mutual fund group of Bank One, which reached a settlement last year with New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of trading abuses, is now being sued by West Virginia.

The change in Hong Kong regulation to allow sales of some hedge funds to retail investors, a reform that is also under consideration at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is about to face even more relaxation, as securities regulators there are preparing to approve an even wider use of this increasingly popular investment vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reports. Since this $1 trillion industry's launch, generally attributed to the late 1940s, hedge funds have been historically designed as investment pools for high-net-worth individuals and various institutions. This was until regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore started approving hedge funds for common folks. As of today, Hong Kong has approved 13 hedge funds for retail investors, while Singapore has given the green light to four. By type, about a half them are the Funds of Funds.

MFS Investment Management Chairman Robert C. Pozen, architect of a strategy that President Bush would like to use as the basis for Social Security reform, is now urging lawmakers to move beyond the headline-grabbing issue of private accounts and address the real stickler behind ensuring the pension fund's long-term solvency: the inevitability of benefit constraints.

At first blush, the numbers are indeed impressive.

With a jump of 9.7%, worldwide mutual fund assets totaled $16.06 trillion at the end of 2004 helped by the positive global performance of equity indexes, according to the data released by the Investment Company Institute.

Mutual fund portfolio managers are taking home fatter paychecks this year, as solid gains in the stock and bond market in the past two years have helped boost median pay, according to a survey by the CFA Institute and the executive-search firm, Russell Reynolds Associates.

Two Putnam Investments portfolio managers are reportedly losing their jobs.

A former Goldman Sachs executive announced on Friday the launch of his new company, a fund operations and administration provider that will provide back-office solutions for hedge funds.

Cindy Fornelli is walking the walk.

Theodore Sihpol III, an ex-broker for Bank of America, either knowingly participated in hedge fund Canary Capital Partners' illegal mutual fund trading, and profited from it, or was a mere "order taker" who "stole nothing," and had no idea that what he did was wrong, according to opening statements at Sihpol's trial last Monday.