Special Program Root Tag

The wait for details on the SEC's new fund independence rules is over, for last Tuesday, the Commission released its final regulations.

The days of cloak-and-dagger proxy ballots are over.

Citigroup has reportedly received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to dealings at its mutual fund arm, Smith Barney. Back in November, Citigroup admitted to regulators that an agreement to erect an internal transfer-agent wing was not disclosed to the company's own mutual funds. To correct the problem, it said it would pay $17 million back to the funds.

Nuveen Investments reported a 14% increase in its second-quarter earnings of $36 million over the period of a year earlier, on a restated basis. The firm's operating revenues were $120.4 million, up 13% from 2003. Nuveen took in $6 billion in assets and netted $3.1 billion in the quarter, with total assets now reaching $102 billion, up 16% from assets of $88 billion a year ago. The firm reported that the increase in assets was driven by $11.2 billion in net new flows and $2.4 billion of market appreciation.

Janus Capital reported a significant second quarter jump in income to $130.2 million from $47.5 million during the same quarter in 2003, according to a recent filing.

Armada Appoints Mahoney As Head of Distribution

After almost three years, it was over. This past December, Callan Associates, a San Francisco-based investment consultant overseeing asset managers in Charles Schwab's managed account program, removed Chartwell Investment Partner's large-cap value equity product from the Schwab platform. Callan noted that Chartwell had underperformed the median benchmark performance for nine out of 12 previous quarters and occupied the bottom decile for four of those nine quarters.

A former leader in retirement plan recordkeeping and custodial services, personal trust services, and more recently custody services for registered investment advisers, Security Trust Co. fell prey to the SEC's microscope when it was charged in November with late-trading mutual fund abuses. The firm was the first to have criminal charges against then-CEO Grant Seeger and was the first to temporarily close its doors.

It's crunch time for mutual funds. With the Oct. 5 deadline for mutual funds to designate a chief compliance officer just two months away, fund executives are scrambling to get their policies and procedures in place. The question is are they ready?

Janus Capital Group has finalized plans to shutter its Westport, Conn., office and relocate the employees to nearby facilities in New York, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News reports.

Tighter investment spreads at life insurance companies have driven UBS Investment Research to change its credit rating on the sector’s bonds from "market perform" to "underweight." The primary reason for this change is that life insurers’ bonds are trading right around their market value.

The clock is ticking toward the deadline for mutual funds to meet compliance guidelines required by newly adopted securities industry regulations, and many asset managers are now scrambling as the Oct, 5 deadline rapidly approaches, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

Federated Investors predicts in increase in the number of smaller mutual funds that outsource their back-office administrative needs to larger complexes, Reuters reports

A pair of Boca Raton-based brokers entered guilty pleas for charges of conspiring to execute after-hours trades in what prosecutors have dubbed the first federal indictment of late mutual fund orders placed on behalf of institutional investors, Associated Press reports.

A lack of growth and an increase in competition may force a mass consolidation in Canada’s fund industry, the Globe & Mail reports. Most affected will probably be middle-of-the-road shops – in other words the middle class will shrink – and small fund boutiques and the industry’s premier players will remain standing.

Affluent Asians, who constitute five percent of the total affluent market in the United States, are not looking at retirement as a primary goal of investing, according to research from TNS Financial Services. Part of the reason is because many are younger entrepreneurs, so their needs are not aligned as much with the traditional affluent market.

Second-quarter numbers at Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. showed a rise in consolidated revenues and a better net income, creating a feeling at Putnam Investments’ parent company that things may be getting on track. However, Putnam itself is still trying to right its ship.

The job of caretaking a mutual fund has many areas of responsibility, so in response to SEC Chairman William Donaldson’s request, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum has put together a report detailing 38 best practices.

Mutual fund clients of the back-office specializing Boston Financial and computer software firm DST Systems will be able to easily adhere to SEC Rule 38a-1 with the companies’ Compliance+ system, an "enterprise-wide compliance program" that helps firms meet the rule’s strict and specific requirements.

T. Rowe Price Group’s profits jumped 49% in the second quarter from the year-ago period, the company reported on Tuesday.