Fund performance

Fidelity Investments is having one of its weakest first five months in recent history. Only 39% of Fidelity’s equity funds are in the company of the top half of their peers, whereas 64% were a year ago, according to Morningstar, The Wall Street Journal reports.

NEW YORK – Timothy Geithner, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, called for substantial reforms to the structure of the regulatory system of the U.S.

While Morningstar certainly has carved out its niche and made a name for itself arming individual investors with mutual fund data and insight, the company plans to increase its focus on financial advisers and institutions, or the “pros” eager to pay for quality research. That’s according to an interview with Morningstar CEO Joe Mansueto in this week’s issue of BusinessWeek.

David Glaser, co-head of investment banking at Bear Stearns, is the latest of several of his former colleagues to join Bank of America.

Hedge funds may be coming off their worst first quarter in history, including, surprisingly enough, a poor showing in the energy sector, but not everyone is doing poorly.

NEW YORK - Days before the European Union celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Euro last week, Dechert LLP held a widely popular seminar here on the how-to's of Undertakings for Collective Investment Trusts, or UCITS, which have been growing at a rapid pace not only on the Continent, but also in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

NEW YORK - Although the summer has only just begun, it was "Back to School" last week here at a State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) seminar for financial advisers, on the finer points of exchange-traded funds.

NEW YORK - As the turbulent economy begins to calm down, investors will likely gravitate toward index-based, middle-of-the-road mutual funds, opening the door for opportunists to sweep up bargains, industry experts say. And the safer, the better.

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.

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.

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

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.