Special Program Root Tag

New Lipper data shows at least one in four international and global mutual fund companies partake in market timing, Financial Times reports.

If the Securities and Exchange Commission approves a filing by DTCC, the not-for-profit clearing and settlement giant, best known for its work for the mutual fund industry, will be able to do the same for the separately managed accounts industry.

The investment management industry is poised for a major overhaul in the next three years, as asset managers are opting to retool their business models.

A union boilermaker smashed a brick into the head of a Putnam Investments phone operator earlier this year, worried that the man was about to report the union’s questionable stock-trading practices to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Improper trading – once virtually unreported upon in the mutual fund industry – has been admitted to by half the companies questioned about it by the Securities and Exchange Commission, The New York Times reports.

Mutual fund companies are reaping immediate benefits of the 401(k) plans they oversee while investors are not, New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson reported Sunday.

Class B shares of mutual funds consistently underperformed both Class A and Class C shares over trailing three- and five-year periods and maintained the highest expense ratio of the three share classes, according to a recent Standard & Poor’s study.

Mutual fund disclosure is a hot topic these days, and U.S. government bond funds are among the latest to attract the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To pay for his legal costs, the first broker to face criminal charges under the wide-ranging mutual fund probe has sued his former employer, Bank of America, The Wall Street Journal reports.

To forge control of a booming but lightly supervised industry, the European Union should steer hedge funds toward its jurisdiction, according to a European Parliament report obtained by Reuters.

Prudential Securities brokers in the firm’s Garden City, N.Y., office are being investigated by the New York attorney general and Securities and Exchange Commission for improper mutual fund trading, The New York Times reports.

NEW YORK - Despite enjoying exceptional growth over the past five years, the separately managed account industry is now at a crossroads. The fragmentation of its infrastructure and growing operational challenges pose a significant hurdle for both sponsors and managers. Determining the best path for integrating operations with sales and marketing and how to improve the sponsor-manager relationship have many folks scratching their heads.

Despite the increasing number of securities fraud allegations at major fund shops, investors' doggedness in the face of adversity boosted stock funds to another strong performance last month.

NEW ORLEANS - With all the shady activity going on within the fund industry of late, a panel of industry experts here at the Investment Company Institute's Operations Conference warned attendees of another set of criminals: those from outside the industry trying to steal personal information to swindle shareholders.

Fidelity Investments' head of global equity trading, Scott DeSano, recently said that the human-based specialist system at the New York Stock Exchange should be eliminated in favor of an electronic system similar to that used by Nasdaq.

Looking to tap its 800 independent broker/dealer clients and 100,000 reps already using its Pershing subsidiary for custody services, The Bank of New York has created a way for these B/D firms to rent a managed account platform for their advisers.

Investors in 401(k)s "appear to be encouraged by the improving stock market during the second quarter," said Jim McCool, senior vice president for Charles Schwab Investor Services, which reviews investor activity for self-directed 401(k) participants. "We saw renewed interest in individual equities, reflected by a 9% increase in asset flows. Overall trading activity increased as well, reaching its highest level since the first quarter of 2002."

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management recently hired C. William Criss as managing director and head of its San Francisco office, a newly created position that the 33-year financial services veteran assumed last month.

GAM has hired Craig Brownell as director, institutional, a job in which he will be responsible for development of the firm's institutional business.

McCamish Systems has reorganized its operations division and promoted a number of its executives in the process, a result of continued client growth from new and existing clients, Gordan Beckham, Jr., president and CEO of McCamish, recently announced.