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WASHINGTON -- Some mutual funds are coming up short in their efforts to meet new Securities and Exchange Commission rules which require improved disclosure in fund prospectuses, said Paul F. Roye, the director of the SEC's Division of Investment Management last week.

TransNations Investments of New York is developing a new fund based on a proprietary Israeli equity index. The Amidex-35 Index Fund will invest in approximately three dozen Israeli companies that are traded on the Tel Aviv or U.S. stock exchanges. The no-load fund is currently in SEC registration and expected to be offered in February.

When Jim Atkinson, a director in charge of U.S. operations at Guinness Flight Investment Management, read the June issue of Wired magazine, he was impressed with an article about the Wired Index. The stock index, compiled by the magazine to chart the global economy of the information age, was promoted as the successor to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Two mutual fund companies with national distribution have opened up a new front in the increasingly heated competition to sell investment funds with insurance benefits.

The SEC last week proposed changes which it says will simplify the form which mutual funds use to close down a fund. The proposed changes will amend Rule 8f-1 of the Investment Company Act and Form N-8F. The industry has until Feb. 5 to comment on the proposal.

The Vanguard Group has filed a registration statement with the SEC for a new fund called the Vanguard Tax-Managed Small-Cap Fund.

The Growth Fund of Spain, one of 15 closed-end funds managed by Scudder Kemper Investments, was to convert to an open-end fund last week. Shareholders had previously approved a proposal to convert the fund and to reorganize it as a new fund in the Kemper Global/International Series.

Cigna Corporation of Philadelphia is establishing a join venture with Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance of Tokyo to sell pension and investment products in Japan.

Fidelity Investments Public Service Sector Services Company announced that it has introduced SLAMNet, the first electronic asset management, Internet-based product designed specifically for public sector clients. SLAMNet gets its name from Fidelity's acronym for its State and Local Asset Management program. Through a secured website, the company offers access to stock quotes and information from major news services and trade publications. It also gives users the ability to trade Fidelity's institutional money market funds online.

Alleghany Funds of Chicago recently opened the Alleghany/Chicago Trust Small Cap Value Fund. The fund will invest in companies with positive or improving cash flows and which show other signs of financial strength. The fund will be managed by Patricia Falkowski. Previously,

Strong Funds of Milwaukee has introduced Prime Managers, a mutual fund investment service that makes available no-load funds from nine leading investment managers on a no-transaction fee basis.

The Massachusetts legislature has approved and sent to Acting Gov. Paul Cellucci a bill which would make Massachusetts law essentially identical to federal law in defining what makes a mutual fund director independent. Both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate approved the bill last month, according to state records.

Donald Yacktman looked like the winner last week in his proxy fight with the independent directors who monitor the two mutual funds that bear Yacktman's name.

Janus and Legg Mason are among the latest of a growing list of companies that run sector funds- those that invest in a particular market sector.

The demand for mutual funds in Germany is growing and Federated Investors has gained a toe-hold in that market. Federated, the Pittsburgh-based mutual fund firm, has entered into a joint venture agreement with a German insurance company, LVM-Versicherungen, to sell retail mutual funds in Germany and in portions of Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The joint venture, which will be under the auspices of a new company based in Frankfurt, Federated Asset Management GmbH, also will provide institutional money management services.

In a move likely to be heard round the globe, two of the world's largest institutional investors have formed an alliance that they hope will advance their corporate governance agendas.

A publicly-traded Christian Internet company is getting into the mutual fund business.

Thomas Marsico, his family and top employees at his money management firm will share $120 million in cash for the sale of 50 percent of Marsico Capital Management, the money management firm and mutual fund adviser based in Denver. Last month BankAmerica Corp. said it had decided to exercise its option to acquire 50 percent of Marsico's firm. Details of the transaction, which Marsico and BankAmerica previously had not disclosed, were included in a preliminary proxy statement which Marsico Capital Management filed Dec. 1 with the SEC.

Mellon Bank Corporation of Pittsburgh and its mutual fund company, the Dreyfus Corporation, announced the start of a new family of offshore funds based in Dublin, Ireland. The fund family, Dreyfus Global Funds, plc, will be composed of four funds: The Cash Plus Fund, U.S. Treasury Fund, Deutsche Mark Fund and Sterling Fund. The funds are not available to U.S. or Irish citizens.

Straus Corporate Communications of New York, an investor relations firm, and Caithness, a corporate marketing organization based in Toronto, announced they have formed an alliance to provide corporate communications services to companies in both the U.S. and Canada. For U.S. companies, the alliance will provide a Canadian resource for communications materials production at savings of up to 40 percent from U.S. prices. In turn, the alliance will provide Canadian companies with services designed to build an investment presence in the U.S.