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Putnam Investments has posted its proxy voting guidelines on its Web site, Reuters reports.

Schoolhouse Capital, a division of State Street Corp., is teaming up with asset management giant Federated Investors and the state of Oregon to launch a state-sponsored 529-college savings program.

SEI Investments announced Tuesday that Barclays Global Investors has selected the firm to serve as distributor for Barclays’ $12 billion fund complex. Under the deal, SEI will distribute Barclays funds, which are primarily sold to institutional retirement plans. SEI will also take an expanded role with respect to Barclays’ exchange traded iShares by providing a wholesaling sales force to target regional broker/dealers.

Financial services giant The Bank of New York Tuesday named Steven Pisarkiewicz executive vice president and head of its investment branch Bank of New York Asset Management, effective May 19.

State Street Corp.’s college savings unit has been chosen by Oregon to develop a multimanager 529 college savings platform.

The Investment Company Institute yesterday urged Congress to act quickly in implementing investment advice legislation and a number of other retirement security provisions of the Pension Security Act of 2003, which the House is scheduled to consider today.

Mutual fund companies, among other financial service providers, cut their advertising spending in the first quarter, as their assets under their management continued to shrink, Dow Jones reports.

SunGard Wealth Management Services, a subsidiary of SunGard, announced yesterday it will acquire two subsidiaries of London Pacific Group that provide Web-based technology to financial institutions offering managed accounts or separately managed accounts. SunGard’s acquisition of the units, London Pacific Advisory Services and London Pacific Securities, is expected to close next month. The value of the deal was not released.

Columbia Management Group, the asset management arm of FleetBoston Financial, yesterday announced the launch of Columbia 529 Plan, a college savings vehicle sponsored by the state of Nevada.

Median Compensation for Investment Professionals Down 22%:Bonuses Take Biggest Hit, Falling 38%The median salary of investment professionals is $148,000, a 22% decline from $165,000 in 2001, according to a survey conducted by the Association of Investment Management Professionals (AIMR) and Russell Reynolds Associates. This is the lowest compensation has been in five years, according to the survey.

UBS President Peter Wuffli says he sees the signs of the end of the bear market, Reuters reports. Wuffli made the remarks in a conference call following his firm’s first-quarter results. Although UBS’ net profit fell to $1.2 billion Swiss francs and operating income fell 19%, the results were better than expected.

AIG Fund Management will acquire two investment funds currently being administered by another firm, Swiss Life, pending Swiss regulatory approval, Reuters reports. AIG says this move will expand its asset management business.

According to research by AMG Data Services for the week ending May 7, U.S. junk bond mutual funds brought in $1.3 billion, extending an already record-breaking rally.

After posting sparkling returns last year, precious metals mutual funds took a turn for the worse in the first quarter of 2003. On average, precious metals funds lost 11.6% in the three-month period ending March 31, reversing a 35.9% gain in the year-ago quarter, according to independent ratings firm Weiss Ratings.

New data released on Thursday from the Hennessee Group, a New York-based hedge fund consulting firm, show that the average hedge fund rose 3.04% in April, whereas the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 8.30%, Reuters reports.

Online broker Ameritrade announced Friday that daily trading volume in April was 124,000, up 7% from 116,000 in the first quarter. However, that was a 12% decrease from average trading volume of 141,000 in the fourth quarter. The firm also said it 31,000 new accounts during April for a total of 2,924,000 accounts.

Northern Trust Corp. has announced that in July it will open a New York City wealth management office, its first outside of Chicago.

If employees in the financial services industry thought layoffs the past few years were tough, it was just a warm-up for what is to come, according to a recent study.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, has infected already-jittery investors with the fear of putting money in Asian markets, but there are several encouraging signs that the continent may not be as scary an investment region as some have suggested.

Baron Capital of New York, the broker/dealer affiliate of mutual fund asset management firm BAMCO and the distributor of shares of four Baron Funds, has been sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also, Ronald Baron, 59, BAMCO's highly visible founder, chairman and chief executive, and two of the firm's traders were punished for their ill deeds.