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Vanguard Group has scrapped a longstanding prohibition on mutual fund orders after 2:30 p.m., moving it to the standard 4 p.m. deadline, even though the industry has begun debating rolling that deadline up, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Municipal authorities in Iowa, Ohio and Massachusetts have reacted to a management shakeup at Wilshire Associates by considering steps to reallocate pension accounts collectively valued $58 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Janus Capital Group Inc. appointed two independent directors to its board yesterday. To make room on the board, Helen Young Hayes, whose term expires in May, will step down, the company said. She was a managing director of investments and managed Janus' international stock funds before she resigned last April.

Barclay’s Global Investors said Monday it plans to launch nine new exchange-traded funds based on the Morningstar Style Box methodology, a move that will bolster its already dominant position in the ETF space.

MFS Investment Management said on Monday it has hired a new chief counsel and a compliance officer to oversee corporate governance and compliance procedures in the wake of its $350 million settlement with regulators last month.

MetLife Inc.said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission requested information about the insurance giant’s possible late trading and market timing of both mutual funds and variable insurance products.

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission is going to request more information from funds as part of a new initiative to detect market-timing activities, according to speakers at the recent Practising Law Institute "SEC Speak" conference held here last Saturday.

MFS Investment Management said on Monday it has hired a new chief counsel and a compliance officer to oversee corporate governance and compliance procedures in the wake of its $350 million settlement with regulators last month.

The National Association of Securities Dealers has slapped its first fine on a brokerage firm for violating NAV transfer program procedures.

Putnam Investments took the initial hit from the rash of sales and marketing executives defecting to Liberty Financial in the late 1990s, but it is Columbia, which since consumed Liberty, that is now poised to take a beating from the transaction.

Smith Barney Consulting Group, New York, debuted Integrated Investment Services, an innovative, proprietary unified managed account platform last October that allows captive Smith Barney financial consultants to see the bigger picture. The platform lets them look broadly across their high-net-worth and institutional clients' investment holdings.

MIAMI -- When assessing the problems plaguing the mutual fund industry, you'll hear plenty of chatter about imposing stiffer penalties and introducing more stringent regulation.

Equity mutual fund assets posted a $43.76 billion inflow in January, up from the $14.18 billion inflow in December, according to the Investment Company Institute's most recent survey of the fund industry.

The House Financial Services Committee passed The Securities Fraud Deterrence and Investor Restitution Act (H.R. 2179), which would permit the SEC to more easily collect fines and funds from those who have broken the law. It would also increase the amount of funds the SEC would be able to return to injured investors.

Rydex Investments has just launched 11 new funds spanning market capitalizations and investment styles, ranging from small-to large-cap, value to growth.

Browchuk Named Head of Putnam DC Servicing Unit

MIAMI -- With Baby Boomers turning age 50 at a rate of 12,000 a day, meeting the needs of mutual fund investors has forced investment advisors to redefine retirement. That's one person every eight seconds for those scoring at home.

The number of mutual funds lowering fund-management fees is proliferating, and as the mutual fund scandal continues to unfold, this trend should spread, according to industry analysts.

Janus issued a release Friday saying it expects institutions to withdraw $4.5 billion from its funds in the first quarter. The figure is on top of $1.8 billion in institutional money that walked out the door in the three months through February.

Citing its track record of preemptively closing mutual funds before current investors become harmed, the Vanguard Group has closed two of its top funds to new investors, effective Thursday, March 4.