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Mutual fund investors who are waiting for settlement payments from investment firms are growing impatient because cash payments are, for the most part, being held back until next year, The Orange County Register reports.

Wall Street sources have revealed that BackRock Inc. is in the end stages of a deal to acquire State Street Research & Management Co. from MetLife Inc., The Wall Street Journal reports.

The majority of American teens feel a need to step in and help foot the bill for college, a new study released by Fidelity Investments reveals. According the fourth installment of Fidelity's annual College Savings Month survey, approximately 95% of American teenagers feel an obligation to shoulder some portion of their college education expenses, and 74% believe their families should foot the bill for nor more than half of their college tuition. Fidelity hopes to use the study results as leverage for promoting its proprietary 529 college savings plan.

At the same time mutual funds are scurrying to meet new regulatory requirements by Oct. 5, the National Investment Company Service Association (NICSA) is about to start a survey of compliance practices. NICSA is conducting the survey in partnership with Diversified management Resources, and it is sponsored by PA Compliance, SalesLink Corporation and PFPC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday banned directed-brokerage arrangements as a means for mutual funds to promote or sell fund shares.

Janus Capital Management settled with the SEC Wednesday for its market-timing arrangements, agreeing to pay a total of $100 million, $50 million of it in disgorgement and $50 million in penalties. Janus also agreed to a cease-and-desist order and agreed to reform its compliance and governance.

Facing a tough market environment, greater regulatory scrutiny and rising costs as a result of new rules, more mutual funds are closing their doors these days, The New York Times reports. In the past two weeks, the WWW Internet, Growth Flex, Market Opportunities and Oakmark Small Cap funds have all decided to shut their doors.

Hedge funds had their fifth consecutive period of record net inflows in the second quarter, according to a report released Monday.

In a new study, FRC predicts new SEC regulations will lead to a major shakeup for the mutual fund industry

The SEC received a formal request to postpone the deadline for comments on new hedge fund regulations to Oct. 28 from Sept. 15. Influential hedge fund providers and business interests have lobbied the Commission for an extension on an expected ruling to increase the amount of regulatory oversight for hedge fund advisors, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to vote Wednesday on a controversial proposal banning directed brokerage, the common practice of mutual fund providers steering trading business to brokerage firms that push the companies' investments, The Washington Post reports.

Following the Mutual Fund Directors Forum’s "best practices" could spell a bad reality for investors, a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission from several independent research firms representing investors suggested.

For its alleged part in a market-timing scheme, Van Eck Associates, which advises the Van Eck Funds, may be facing Securities and Exchange Commission charges, the company indicated in an SEC filing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission hit Angelo Haligiannis and his Sterling Watters Group LP hedge fund with emergency enforcement action last Wednesday for lying to investors about performance, complete with false documents, prospectuses and marketing materials.

A new research report indicates that many of the proposed changes to the troubled mutual fund industry would do more harm than good, mostly because of how much money implementing those changes would cost.

Investors suctioned $951 million from stock funds for the week ending last Wednesday, according to research done by the firm TrimTabs.com.

The Investment Company Institute’s weekly look at money market fund assets showed a slight drop, from $1.982 trillion on Wednesday, August 4, to $1.976 trillion on Wednesday, August 11. The decrease of $5.94 billion was due mostly to institutional money market funds’ losses, which tallied $4.77 billion.

Former Conseco President and CEO Thomas J. Kilian borrowed $25 million to buy company stock but never repaid the company, according to the Associated Press. Kilian is one of 11 executives charged with borrowing more than $670 million in order to buy company stock.

More details surfaced last week of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe into Wachovia subsidiary Evergreen Investments. Evergreen revealed the name of two of its funds that are being probed and said the ex-manager of one of those funds is also being investigated, Reuters reports.

Socially responsible investing shop Pax World Funds of Portsmouth, N.H. is warning investors of Internet scams, one of which recently targeted its customers.