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State Street Global Advisors of Boston has filed with the SEC to offer eight exchange-traded funds, five of them based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. One is based on the Wilshire REIT Index and two on Morgan Stanley technology indexes - the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 and the Morgan Stanley Internet Index.

Aquila Management Corp. of New York, adviser to the Aquila Group of Funds, has created two new equity funds with economist Arthur B. Laffer.

The Pioneer Group of Boston has issued a letter to its corporate shareholders to update them on the firm's efforts to sell the company. The April 18 letter, signed by 73-year-old Pioneer president John F. Cogan, Jr., alerts shareholders that the Pioneer "board is very encouraged by the expressions of interest received to date," and attacks Lens Investment Management of Portland, Maine, a beneficial owner of 4.1 percent of Pioneer's stock.

NEW YORK - Even though exchange-traded funds are among the largest 10 index funds in each major asset class and make up 10 percent of all index funds, fund companies are wary of offering the product, according to one industry executive.

T. Rowe Price Associates of Baltimore will pay $780 million in cash to buy out Robert Fleming Holdings, Ltd., of London in the firm's joint venture, Rowe Price-Fleming International of Baltimore.

The SEC wants to extend its campaign to eliminate legal-speak in mutual fund prospectuses to documents fund advisers file disclosing key fund information. Extending what is called "plain English" to these documents, known as Form ADVs, is likely to generate more work for lawyers and consultants and add what should be a one-time expense for fund advisers.

Regulators are continuing to warn fund companies about how they advertise their funds' performances.

Putnam Investments of Boston is considering creating a new type of cloned fund sensitive to capital gains taxes, said Gordon Forrester, managing director at Putnam.

Pioneer Group of Boston has purchased five mutual funds in the Czech Republic currently owned and operated by Credit Suisse Asset Management's investment management unit in the Czech Republic, Pioneer Group has announced. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.

Mutual fund directors do a good job monitoring fund advisers on matters required by law but should expand their oversight in several ways, a recent SEC examination of fund directors' practices suggests.

It has not taken the SEC long to make sure the mutual fund industry is following the practices outlined in a letter the agency issued in December.

Shareholders of the closed-end Central European Value Fund can expect to see major changes over the next few months.

Janus of Denver, Colo. is creating a new line of funds to expand its sales through plan sponsors, broker/dealer wrap programs and bank trust departments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission March 28 charged Monetta Financial Services of Wheaton, Ill. with failure to disclose initial public offering holdings in two of its funds in their quarterly statements.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The SEC expects to complete its assessment of trends in mutual fund fees and expenses by early this summer, said Paul Roye, director of the SEC's division of investment management. The SEC has completed compiling data for the study and now is working on how it will report the results, Roye said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a public roundtable on May 23 on investment advisors.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The SEC might permit an exception to its two percent cap on redemption fees, allowing closed-end funds that are converting to an open-end structure to assess a redemption charge in excess of two percent, according to Paul Roye, director of the SEC's division of investment management.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Regulators are increasing their scrutiny of mutual fund advertising in light of fund companies' heavy promotion of their 1999 mutual funds' performances.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The SEC's proposal to require funds to report their after-tax investment performance may prove popular with investors, but it is far from a hit with mutual fund industry lawyers.

Palm Desert, Calif. - The occasional practice of mutual fund directors serving on more than one fund complex poses troubling conflicts that are best avoided, according to two seasoned industry participants.