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The Reserve Funds ranked as the fastest-growing money fund complex in 2003, ending the first quarter with $24 billion in assets under management, according to The Money Fund Report. That represents a 24% increase in the first quarter from the same period a year ago.

WASHINGTON – William J. McDonough, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, isn’t retiring after all.

BlackRock Inc. announced yesterday that its earning rose 12% in the first quarter.

Black Rock and Nuveen Investments aside, most mutual fund and financial service companies are reporting negative returns for the first quarter of the year, State Street and Mellon Financial among them.

State Street Corp. got a boost Friday when US Bancorp Piper Jaffray upgraded the fund giant’s stock to "market perform" from "underperform," directly citing the company’s recent announcement that it would be laying off 1,800 workers.

Sister Nicole Rielle, a 73 year old Parisian Nun, is on a formidable mission. She serves as the financial strategist behind the country’s first ethical investment funds, The New York Times reports.

According to research by McLean, Va. financial planner Barry Glassman, funds with a manager's name in the title – "sir-named funds," he calls them – have been gaining in popularity and for good reason, Money magazine reports.

BlackRock Inc. announced yesterday it is expanding its hedge-fund business through the acquisition of HPB Management LLC, a New York fund of hedge funds manager.

After several years of layoffs in the mutual fund industry, a new service that provides a job board and skill enhancement at the same place may be well timed.

Investors have been running for cover. With 1,038 new fixed-income and 308 new money market funds to hit the market since the beginning of the bear market, fund companies have been keeping pace, hoping to provide shelter from the storm.

There has been some talk of a whopping $5 trillion sitting on the sidelines, but little if any of it is actually in a position to be the white knight the market may have been hoping would save the day and lead the way back to bullish times.

Mutual fund giant Vanguard Group filed a civil suit against Citibank and Salomon Smith Barney last week alleging the firms fraudulently sold it $70 million of worthless Enron bonds, according to the Associated Press.

A former Dreyfus Corp. president who serves as director of the money manager’s mutual funds may be regretting the hefty salary he earns, Reuters reports.

Putnam Lovell Equity Partners, a private equity fund managed by Putnam Lovell NBF Private Equity, has agreed to buy Mizuho Corporate Bank’s interest in Atlantic Asset Management.

Fidelity Investments has launched several new services for advisers: a separate accounts screening program, custody and recordkeeping for alternative investments and charitable management for private foundations.

Hedge funds are the latest investment vehicle to be put through the ringer as the Securities and Exchange Commission mulls more stringent regulation.

Investors have been running for cover, and with 1,038 additional fixed-income and 308 new money market funds to hit the market since the beginning of the bear market, fund companies have been keeping pace, hoping to provide shelter from the storm.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The Securities and Exchange Commission will certainly have its hands full for the next 12 months, as a spate of issues within the mutual fund industry have landed in its crosshairs. Despite a robust agenda, the SEC told fund executives at the Mutual Fund Investment and Management Conference two weeks ago that it will "marshal all of the resources [it] can" so that each item is carefully examined and dealt with in a timely fashion.

Mutual fund giant Fidelity announced last week that it plans to acquire Correspondent Services Corp., the clearing unit of UBS PaineWebber. The deal will make Fidelity the eighth-largest clearing firm in the U.S.

Pay and performance don't necessarily go hand in hand for fund directors, who were rewarded an average 8% pay increase at the biggest fund complexes last year, according to findings by a recent Management Practice study.