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Securities regulators issued a $400,000 fine to Banc One Securities Wednesday for falling short of its responsibilities to crack down on repeated late trades for mutual funds and maintain adequate records of trading times.

Janus Capital Group eked out a 1.2% increase last month in its overall assets, with gross sales of the firm's long-term investments rising more than 35% in December, Reuters reports.

Exchange-traded funds had a banner year in 2004 in which the nascent investment classs grew by a staggering 47% to $222 billion, according to Morningstar.

Proponents of actively managed exchange-traded funds say their dream may soon become a reality and begin trading later this year, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

A rule that goes into effect on March 31 may add more spark to the controversy regarding mutual fund expenses. The rule requires mutual fund directors to explain "in reasonable detail" in a fund's annual report why they approved the fund manager's contract, CBS MarketWatch reports.

With four owners in 4-1/2 years, many hope that VARDS has finally found a home with Morningstar, which announced Tuesday it has bought the company from Finetre for $9 million in cash, adjusted for working capital.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had reached a settlement Tuesday with two brokers for engineering a scheme that facilitated market timing and late trading at the cost of long-term mutual fund shareholders. Lawrence S. Powell and Delano Sta. Ana, former registered representatives of the Boca Raton. Fla.-based brokerage firm Kaplan & Co. Securities, did not admit or deny the findings.

Morningstar announced late on Friday that it had changed the lead underwriter for its IPO from Morgan Stanley to W.R. Hambrecht, The Wall Street Journal reports. The investment researcher also said that it would sell its shares through an auction rather than a traditional sale.

Marsh & McLennan Cos., the global insurer parent of Putnam Investments, has intensified its own internal regulatory efforts and named E. Scott Gilbert senior vice president and head of compliance, a newly created position.

Exchange-traded funds reaped the benefits last year of a large investor migration into risky emerging markets and developing countries, CBS MarketWatch reports.

The four Canadian mutual fund companies that recently settled with the Ontario Securities Commission permitted market timing in 54 funds, most of them international funds, The Globe and Mail reports.

Dallas broker/dealer Southwest Securities has agreed to pay $10 million for allegedly failing to prevent its registered reps from submitting market-timing and late-trading mutual fund trades. Three managers and two brokers were also named in the suit, filed jointly by the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dallas broker/dealer Southwest Securities has agreed to pay $10 million for allegedly failing to prevent its registered reps from submitting market-timing and late-trading mutual fund trades. Three managers and two brokers were also named in the suit, filed jointly by the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Securities regulators are turning their attention to making sure investors are fully aware of newly enacted safeguards aimed at disclosing obscure fees sometimes hidden in mutual funds' prospectuses, The Washington Post reports.

A rally in the fourth quarter boosted most equity funds, which rose an average of 13.6% for the year, well above the S&P 500's 9% gain.

Mutual funds had stronger net inflows in November than in the month before or the year earlier, according to Financial Research Corp.

NASD announced it collected $102 million in fines throughout 2004, filed 1,360 enforcement actions and barred or suspended 830 people. NASD officials also brought 120 disciplinary actions against securities firms regarding mutual fund sales and trading, including late trading and sales compensation practices.

Fund traders see the stock market poised for another year of positive returns in 2005, but expect weakness in the dollar and a dropoff in corporate earnings to limit its upside potential.

As assessment of the Indian Ocean tsunami continues, fund analysts beginning to measure financial risk in the region said equity and fixed-income markets remained stable. Despite the colossal human tragedy and destruction of 20,000 miles of coastline, they did not expect economies in the region or mutual funds with investments there to be tremendously impacted.

The mutual fund industry has weathered its midlife crisis, a two-year period marked by the trading scandal, and is now on the way to becoming a mature industry, Ernst & Young reports in its annual "State of the Financial Services Industry Report."