Special Program Root Tag

The New York Stock Exchange is taking long-anticipated steps to beef up its proprietary indexes to increase its share of the low-cost exchange traded fund business, CBSMarketWatch reports.

Because the Securities and Exchange Commission is now considering making a 2% redemption fee optional, the retirement plan industry has intensified efforts to develop its own solution in accordance with mutual fund providers, InvestmentNews reports.

To prove to its investors that it is working tirelessly to regain a once solid reputation, Putnam Investments has begun to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission how much money its own fund managers invest in their funds, Bloomberg reports.

Assets in exchange-traded funds rose 20% in the last nine months, buoyed, perhaps, by the continuing fallout from the mutual fund scandal.

A growing number of pension plan administrators are giving Fidelity Investments the boot before the mutual fund giant imposes a new mandate requiring 401(k) providers to enforce short-term redemption fees on an even-handed basis, InvestNews reports.

Passively managed funds beat their actively managed peers by a wide margin, a new study shows. The trend filters across all fund categories, and the comparison would be even starker had the data included managed funds that have since been merged into better-performing funds.

In analyzing its second quarter 2004 figures, the not-for-profit lobbying group for college savings programs found that an overwhelming majority of 529 plans employ the savings style that gets more conservative as the saver nears college-age, known as age-based portfolios.

A U.S. subsidiary of Dutch financial services firm ING Group said on Friday the NASD has made a preliminary recommendation that an enforcement action be brought against an affiliate and one of its registered agents, Reuters reports.

AssetMark Investment Services has announced that Parametric Portfolio Associates will handle overlay portfolio management for its new "Consolidated Managed Accounts" program. AssetMarket, which only launched its CMA portfolios last week, said Parametric’s presence will allow for the integration of SMAs, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in one portfolio, creating what is known in the industry as a unified managed account.

Global bond funds continued to build upon momentum gained in previous weeks while emerging market bond funds had net outflows for the fourth week in a row, according to data released Monday by Emerging Portfolio Fund Research.

Franklin Templeton Investments filed "false and misleading statements" with the Securities and Exchange Commission by not admitting to wrongdoing in settling its mutual fund case, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has charged.

The NASD has fined Citigroup Global Markets $250,000 for distributing inappropriate hedge fund sales literature. The penalty marks the agency's heftiest fine for abusive hedge fund sales practices by broker/dealers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly fears that investment companies may have paid retirement-plan consultants in order to steer business their way. A probe that began last December looking into possible conflicts of interest in the financial-services industry has uncovered troubling evidence of improper payments to the pension planners, according to the SEC.

After months of clamoring for a divorce from its equity fund affiliates, Bill Gross finally got his wish.

It's official. In a highly anticipated move, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 in favor of requiring hedge fund managers to register as investment advisors with the agency last week.

Larry Lasser: $78 million.

For its one-year-old Chinese mutual fund venture, ABN AMRO has set its sights on tripling its assets by the end of next year. Just one month after it got the okay to put $75 million into Chinese stocks and bonds, the Netherlands-based company could soon jump into the No. 2 spot in China behind Allianz. Tripling its assets would bring its total to $1.3 billion.

Mutual fund research giant Lipper has purchased Fitzrovia International for an undisclosed amount of money. Fitzrovia, considered Lipper's equivalent in London, specializes in the analysis of non-U.S. funds' total expense ratios. In a statement, Lipper said it can now "provide clients with a truly global fund expense and data service in its software, datafeed and consulting products." As part of the agreement, Lipper said that although Fitzrovia's existing operations will grow, the company will retain its name and it will continue operating as a stand-alone division.

Phoenix Hires Walsh to Fill Newly Created Position

NEW YORK -- Some fund investors have lost that loving feeling.