Special Program Root Tag

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange last week fined Fidelity Brokerage Services $2 million for destroying or altering records in at least 21 of its 88 branch offices.

Stephen Treadway, the chief executive officer of PIMCO affiliate PA Distributors, who was charged with fraud back in May, has left the company. Treadway and his firm, PA Distributors, which is a retail leg of Allianz Dresdner Asset Management of America, were said to have approved trades by Canary Capital, according to the civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another PA Distributor affiliate, PEA Capital, saw its CEO, Kenneth Cobra, resign in April amid similar charges. Treadway had been the chairman of the board of PIMCO Funds, as well. A company spokesman said Treadway left to pursue other interests.

Janus Capital has had to withstand some face slapping from investors while it attempts to cure its ailing business, but it may soon run out of available cheek space as the hits keep coming.

Franklin Advisers wiped away some of the muck from the mutual fund trading scandal last week after agreeing to a $50 million settlement with regulators for its involvement in inappropriate trading of mutual fund shares.

The country is on edge from the recent warnings that terrorists are planning an attack before the November elections against financial services firms, and many experts say the financial service industry, including mutual fund companies, is ill prepared to prevent another attack.

Evergreen Funds confirmed that the SEC is investigating potential market timing at the firm and may bring an enforcement against it. The firm's parent company, Wachovia, first made the indication that a former employee as well as a portfolio manager may be charged in an SEC filing. An Evergreen spokeswoman indicated the firm intends to tell the SEC why enforcement action shouldn't be taken.

Proxy and shareholder communication firm Georgeson Shareholder Services has acquired shareholder mailing firm Alamo Direct Mail in a $15.5 million deal. Through the acquisition, Georgeson aims to boost its standing as a comprehensive service provider for the mutual fund industry by incorporating Alamo's Internet-based shareholder data-processing capabilities.

Global Investment Systems has broken with Extended Systems, its longstanding database provider, and is now using Oracle's database platform to power its latest shareholder accounting system, formally known as MFACT. Mary Pizzichino, U.S. director of sales and marketing at GIS, said Oracle's database offers the power and functionality required by larger institutional customers that is lacking in Extended Systems' database. "This new functionality allows us to attract and serve those users with the development of the Oracle functionality for MFACT." In addition, Oracle's database provides greater flexibility than Extended Systems for interfacing with a wide variety of server operating environments, like Microsoft's Windows applications, UNIX and Linux, Pizzichino said. GIS intends to continue Extended Technology in MFACT applications intended for smaller customers, according to a statement from the company.

Delaware Names Nutt Head Of Renamed Diversity Fund

Facing increasing pressure to overhaul its antiquated trading system, the New York Stock Exchange has proposed reforms that could encourage more electronic trading in listed stocks.

Following the Securities and Exchange Commission's new requirements regarding mutual fund boards and independent trustees, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum, at the request of SEC Chairman William Donaldson, has weighed in with its own set of 32 best practices. Donaldson made the request in November, just 2-1/2 months after the fund scandal broke, at a point when the SEC was finalizing a flurry of regulatory proposals to enhance board members' independence to stem further abusive activities.

Mark Lattis, a seasoned investment professional with more than $3 billion under his watch, has surfaced as the latest addition to a growing list of portfolio managers who have left Invesco within the past 18 months, Rocky Mountain News reports.

Most insurance companies have reported earnings, and the news is generally good for life insurers. With few exceptions, life insurance companies have met or beaten analyst expectations, according to UBS Investment Research.

Piper Jaffray said in a filing this week that the National Association of Securities Dealers has told the firm to expect disciplinary action for directed-brokerage arrangements it entered into with several fund firms, the Associated Press reports.

The mutual fund industry may have overstated its ability to deter market timers because compliance officers and securities regulators lack the ability to control individual investors’ personal brokerage accounts, Reuters reports.

Despite analysts’ bullish predictions that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on track to post earnings of 27% in the second quarter, many stock market investors during the past month expressed their skepticism through widespread selling, BusinessWeek reports.

Global Investment Systems has broken with Extended Systems, its longstanding database provider, and utilized Oracle’s database platform to power its latest shareholder accounting system, which is formally known as MFACT.

Buy recommendations from independent research firms with no investment banking business carry more weight than the same recommendations from investment banks, a new study shows. In fact, the three college professors who conducted the study found that between 1996 and the middle of 2003, the performance of the stock recommendations by independent research firms topped the banks’ recommendations by 8%.

An overwhelming majority of big-ticket retirement plans are moving against market timing, and the ones who have not moved are preparing to do so, according to a survey by the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, a division of the Association for Financial Professionals.

San Francisco-based Union Bank of California officially bought CNA Financial Corporation’s retirement plan trust and recordkeeping businesses, the companies announced, although terms were not immediately disclosed. The deal was first announced on May 17, but was just now completed.