Special Program Root Tag

Bisys Fund Services has given James L. Fox the nod as its new president. Fox will oversee Bisys' U.S. and European outsourcing services business that supports mutual funds, variable annuities and separately managed accounts.

Pacific Life Insurance Co. announced a suite of promotions earlier this month, including those of Christina M. Sumpter, Donald M. Downing, Brendan L. Collins, Robert J. Hemstead, Reed J. Lloyd, Eddie D. Tung, Daniel S. Johnson and Peter S. Tseng.

MetWest Capital Management said Brian J. O'Sullivan has joined the firm as vice president and senior investment specialist to oversee its International Core Value product. He was most recently vice president with Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management in San Diego.

State Street Corp. will slash 1,800 more jobs on top of the 1,000 recently announced as part of a cost-reduction package that aims to cut operating expenses by $125 million throughout the remainder of 2003. The announcement came just before State Street reported a 46% decline in first quarter earnings, to $96 million, down from $178 million a year ago.

T. Rowe Price Chairman George A. Roche said first-quarter earnings would fall significantly below the 41 cents per share earned in the first quarter of 2002. The results, which are scheduled to be released this Friday, could be 30% lower, Roche said.

In the same breath as announcing its inclusion in the S&P 500 index, Federated Investors preannounced its first-quarter earnings will be $49 million, down 6% from $52.3 million a year earlier.

Vanguard reportedly filed a civil suit against Citibank and Salomon Smith Barney alleging the firms fraudulently sold it $70 million of worthless Enron bonds.

Franklin Resources, the money and mutual fund manager that operates Franklin Templeton Investments, is reportedly preparing to pay up to $521.1 million in cash to buy back its convertible bonds that mature this year.

Equity fund fees are down, the industry insists. Not so fast, academics, Lipper and the General Accounting Office counter. As proof, they take a close look at how declines in assets and increases in turnover - pressures the business has succumbed to in this bear market - put upward pressure on fees.

Junk funds have been investors’ darling in the past two months due to their strong performance, and they attracted $555.2 million last week, their eighth straight week of inflows, Reuters reports.

Janus Capital Management announced yesterday Helen Young Hayes, portfolio manager of Janus Worldwide Fund and managing director of investments, will resign from her daily responsibilities, effective June 16.

Pension reform pioneers representatives Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have just introduced their newest bill, the Comprehensive Retirement Security and Pension Reform Act (H.R. 1776).

Think the new certifications that top fund company executives are going to personally give their shareholder reports will result in more insightful, vivid descriptions of their business? Think again, fund executives and attorneys tell The Wall Street Journal.

The American Stock Exchange is working actively to wrest some of the close-end fund business from the Big Board, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The new battle between the exchanges echoes their fight for exchange traded funds, as Mutual Fund Market News reported last summer.

Peter Mangan is no stranger to independent financial advisers, which is exactly why he left his alma mater, TD Waterhouse, last year to start a new San Diego-based brokerage firm, Shareholder Services Group.

Life insurers should beware if interest rates remain at all-time lows, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. Even so, a prolonged period of low interest rates will most likely affect company balance sheets but does not threaten solvency.

Mario Gabelli, the well-known mutual fund manager and head of the money management company that bears his name, took a 20% pay cut last year, as his portfolios sagged amid a bear market.

Mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments has expanded its Premium 401(k) Program to include nine additional mutual funds, the company announced yesterday. The program is made up of a variety of employer-sponsored plans offered by third-party financial advisers to small and mid-sized companies.

Van Global Hedge Fund Index, a benchmark of hedge fund performance run by Van Hedge Fund Advisors International, rose 0.4% in March, net of fees, reversing a 0.2% decline in February, according to a preliminary report. Excluding fund of funds, the index rose 0.5% for the month. Within that universe, 63% of the more than 800 participating funds showed a positive return in March. However, only one-third of those funds managed to outpace the S&P 500, which posted a 1% gain.

When Fidelity talks, people listen, so when the nation’s biggest mutual fund company released its March monthly report yesterday, newshounds were quick to analyze changes to its holdings.