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WASHINGTON - Hedge fund representatives at the recent Securities and Exchange Commission roundtable on hedge funds adamantly denied the need for increased oversight of their industry. Others at the meeting lobbied for regulators to ease current restrictions on mutual funds so that they could act more like hedge funds.

Barclays Global Investors is blazing the trail for the exchange-traded fund (ETF) business as federal regulators have lifted key investment restrictions on its iShares product.

Equity mutual fund inflows in April hit their highest level in a year as investors cheered a swift military campaign in Iraq and a broad-based rally in stocks.

TIAA-CREF has temporarily suspended sales of its after-tax deferred annuities, Teachers Personal Annuity and Personal Annuity Select.

Economic confidence among African-American CEOs was down in the first quarter of 2003, from 44 out of 100 in the previous quarter to 37.9, according to the Gazelle Index from ING U.S. Financial Services.

WASHINGTON – Maintaining more realistic expectations about mutual fund returns will be a critical step toward rejuvenating investor confidence.

Credit Suisse fund managers are watching the decline of the dollar with a careful eye, Reuters reports.

Fidelity’s fees for its flagship Magellan fund have fallen significantly due to the bear market, Reuters reports, citing information from the fund’s annual report..

TRUSTlynx, a service of First Trust Corp., has debuted a Web site and voice response unit program that plan sponsors and other financial institutions can use to capture IRA rollovers. TRUSTlynx is allowing companies to either private label or co-brand the program.

AllianceBernstein Investment Research announced Tuesday that its 529 college savings plan, sponsored by the state of Rhode Island, has topped $3 billion in assets.

The $6.3 trillion dollar fund industry has come under increased scrutiny after a steady three years of stock market declines and corporate scandals such as WorldCom, Enron and Global Crossing have rattled investor confidence to levels not previously seen, Reuters reports.

MetLife Retirement & Savings, an administrator of defined benefit and defined contribution programs, has selected ADP Investor Communication Services to provide 401(k) print services for its small- and mid-sized clients.

Raymond James Financial Services is going to enroll its 5,200 financial advisers in the industry-owned AdvisorCentral, the two companies announced Tuesday. At present, 100 of Raymond James’ back-office personnel are registered with the service, which they use to research clients’ accounts. Launched in November 2001, AdvisorCentral aggregates information from 40 funds.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley (R-OH) and Richard Baker (R-LA), chairman of the capital markets subcommittee, will introduce a bill on Wednesday that would strengthen the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement power.

Content offerings among institutional asset management Web sites remain limited, despite some improvements since 2001, according to a yet-to-be released kasina study.

Following last week’s two-day round-table on the hedge fund industry, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson will speak to the House Financial Services Capital Markets Subcommittee Thursday about the industry’s role in the market.

At the recent Securities and Exchange Commission hedge fund hearings in Washington, the question on everyone’s mind was whether or not hedge funds would be restricted in regards to tactics they can employ to manage money, Dow Jones reports.

Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt, Tuesday announced a partnership with seven other investment companies. The companies are: ACM, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Schroders and UBS. Deutsche Bank has been selling Invesco funds since last year.

Brinker Capital has thrown its hat into the "no downside" ring with its own offering, a series of principal protected notes that are fixed income vehicles with market participation through an equity index. In the course of developing this product, the company considered many different options, said Eddie Cohen, the managing director who headed up the project.

PFPC Trust Co., a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., says it plans to make custody and securities lending the focus of its overall business strategy.