Special Program Root Tag

A new report compiled by a Californian environmental financial group charged socially responsible mutual funds (SRIs) with diluting their investment objectives by increasingly moving into mainstream stocks, like Microsoft and Wal-Mart, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Former Bank of America broker Theodore Sihpol asked the New York State Supreme Court Monday to dismiss criminal charges against him, Reuters reports. Sihpol was the first person that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer arrested in the fund trading scandal, accusing him in September 2003 of colluding with Canary Capital Partners to place illegal trades as late as 8:30 p.m., even providing the hedge fund with an electronic trading platform.

MFS Investment Management’s CEO Robert Manning told a gathering of investors in Toronto, where the firm’s parent company, Sun Life, is headquartered, that the firm is rebounding from the mutual fund trading scandal, Canadian Press reports. The company has paid more than $400 million in settlements, but the damage to its reputation may be more painful and difficult to recover from.

Janus Capital Group next year will launch three mutual funds in hopes of maintaining its position as an equity growth powerhouse, Reuters reports.

Dow Jones agreed Sunday to acquire the financial news Web site known as CBS.MarketWatch.com and its corporate parent, MarketWatch Inc, for $520 million, CBS.MarketWatch.com reported.

The Barron Asset, Matthews Asian and Rainier Investment funds respectively topped a list rating mutual fund families for exercising fiduciary responsibility, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Putnam Investments announced Monday that it will lay off approximately 100 people across all areas of the company, "to improve the operating efficiency of Putnam," Chief Executive Officer Charles Haldeman said in a statement.

Merrill Lynch will become the first foreign institution to list a mutual fund on China’s exchanges as it begins selling its latest investment product to domestic investors this week, Reuters reports.

Amid growing rumors that SEC Chairman William Donaldson may not reach end of term in 2007, prominent business groups are pressuring the Bush administration to weaken the Security and Exchange Commission’s ability to censure wayward financial service companies, The Associated Press reports.

ORLANDO -- Transfer agents are coping with an increasingly difficult recruiting environment these days, as evolving demographic trends have forced them to change the way they approach their service models.

ORLANDO -- A number of new regulatory developments have imposed a hefty burden on the back-office and operations personnel employed by most mutual funds, prompting an industry-wide discussion of how to address trouble spots and adapt to a rapidly changing compliance landscape.

Just weeks after hammering out final settlements with state and federal securities regulators at both its AIM Investments and Invesco Funds Group affiliate, AIM is back to business as usual, the business of branding, that is.

While investors have improved their confidence in the securities industry since last year, they still have not completely embraced the idea that everything is back to normal, an annual Securities Industry Association survey found.

An overhaul of the nation's Social Security plan, one of the big-ticket items of newly reelected President Bush's second-term agenda, could create a windfall for mutual fund firms specializing in index funds, according to industry insiders.

Market-timing and late-trading abuses are rare in the European fund industry, according to a recently published report from a group of regulators in Europe.

Assets under management in separately managed accounts (SMAs) jumped 1.2% in the third quarter, according to figures the industry's top trade association released last week.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Speaking at the 2004 Operations Conference and Service Provider Exhibition here, Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens stressed the importance of funds and their operations support working together with regulators and the media to redefine the culture of the mutual fund business in the wake of the largest scandal in its history.

Gabelli Asset Management has named Howard F. Ward director of growth products, a position in which he will oversee domestic and foreign growth equity products for both mutual funds and separately managed accounts.

Vanguard has elected long-time Harvard Business School Professor Andre F. Perold as an independent member of its board of directors. Perold will begin serving at the end of December and also serve on the board of trustees of each of Vanguard's mutual funds.

Brian C. Lee is joining AIM Investments as director of sales strategy and planning for its AIM Distributors retail marketing wing. Most recently a director of retail managed accounts for Harris Investment Management, Lee is a 20-year investment industry veteran with experience in many different tiers of some high-profile businesses.