Subject Root Tag

As Citigroup looks to restore confidence and drive up its profits, rumors are circulating that the financial giant has received the first round of bids for its mutual fund and insurance sales unit, Primerica Financial Services.

Money market mutual funds assets rose by $18.06 billion to $3.520 trillion for the week ending June 5, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Wachovia Corp. says its retail retirement group is drawing assets by having advisers work face to face with customers at every income level to create a retirement plan.

Millionaires became slightly more optimistic about the future of the U.S. economy in May, according to Spectrem's Millionaire Investor Index.

Fidelity Investments is laying off 550 workers, most of them among its 5,700-employee facility in Merrimack, N.H., where mutual fund and human resource customers are served, according to various reports.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a pair of initiatives designed to strengthen its position in the asset management market.

Moody’s has placed the triple-A insurer financial strength ratings for Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. on review for a possible downgrade.

A new study released by Strategic Insight pointed out that traditional point-of-sale commissions for mutual fund sales are close to being extinct. Of all the sales in 2007, 60% occurred without any front-end loads.

Dow Jones Indexes was named the “Most Innovative ETF Index Provider of 2007” in the Americas at the 4th annual Global ETF Awards.

On Thursday, San Francisco’s Forward Management LLC unveiled its latest plan to acquire Seattle’s Accessor Capital Management LLC.

As Big Brown gets ready for his big day Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, his owners and financiers are already counting their predicted earnings.

Walter Ricciardi, the Security and Exchange Commission’s deputy director of the Division of Enforcement, announced he will retire this month to join the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as a partner.

Two titans of fundamentally weighted indexes are being compared to the funds they created, in the hopes of stirring up a little excitement.

Joseph D. Kringdon has left his position as managing director, Eastern regional director of sales at Putnam Investments to become executive vice president, head of U.S. retail distribution at Pioneer Investments.

Wells Fargo & Co. and UMB Financial Corp. have each succeeded in the health savings account business, but many of their customers have come through unexpected routes.

Funds that invest in high yield bonds have experienced a rate of inflows unseen for almost five years, according to recently released data.

Iowa has launched a “Baby 529 College Savings Giveaway” program in which it will randomly award $1,000 in money toward a 529 plan to one baby a month at participating Iowa hospitals. Every family that registers their child, however, will also receive a small “welcome home” gift, courtesy of Iowa State Treasurer Michal L. Fitzgerald.

While data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows that hedge funds’ bets against the U.S. greenback have risen by 36% so far this year, Deseret Morning News reports, mutual funds and other institutional investors are raising their stakes in the dollar.

WASHINGTON - Mutual fund companies and their attendant banking channel need to engage the mass affluent, rather than simply chasing the wealthy, if they seriously want to develop their retirement businesses.

Despite strict guidelines and barriers within China, which tend to turn off global fund houses from conducting business, Fidelity International is ready and willing to pursue joint ventures there sometime in the near future.