International funds

A record $156.5 billion was withdrawn from mutual funds in Europe, according to the Lipper FMI report. All asset classes suffered net withdrawals. By comparison, U.S. mutual funds have lost $100 billion year-to-date, according to AMG Data Services.

Encouraged by new lows in the Nikkei Stock Average, as well as other major indices, Japanese investors are buying up stocks, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) will begin publishing aggregate market data on credit derivatives, starting Nov. 4.

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the largest financial clearinghouse in the U.S., is in talks to merge with its European rival LCH.Clearnet in a deal worth approximately $950 million.

The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed several large firms and agencies as part of an investigation to determine whether Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. misled investors before its Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing, according to the Stamford Advocate.

Putnam Investments has named Jeffrey R. Carney as the new senior managing director and head of global marketing and products, effective Oct. 27.

Despite a stable economic outlook for the foreseeable future, many Canadians are concerned that their government isn’t doing enough to prepare itself for the kind of downturn the rest of the world is experiencing, writes the National Post.

Lazard Asset Management has launched an emerging markets fund, the Lazard Developing Markets Equity Portfolio, which will use a bottom-up stock selection process and which the company is offering to investors as an alternative to value and emerging-markets funds.

Canadian securities regulators have begun on-site reviews of money market funds, fearing their exposure to devalued securities.

The Royal Bank of Canada has pledged $35 million to help cover clients invested in a money market mutual fund that recently broke the buck, Reuters reports.

Investors began a run on The Reserve's Primary Fund last Monday when Lehman's bankruptcy news made them fearful about the money market funds' $785 million exposure to the investment bank's previously blue-chip commercial paper and medium-term notes that had fallen to zero value.

Expect a pop in equity valuations, increased liquidity and lower trading costs as U.S. and foreign corporations list stocks using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). That's according to a working paper published by the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business.

CHICAGO - In the coming weeks and months, financial officials and members of Congress will be scrambling to revisit a spate of sunsetting tax and accounting laws before the new presidential administration and Congress take over next year.

With Japanese households worth more than $14 trillion, and half of that in cash or postal accounts, Manulife Financial Corp. has decided to enter the nation’s mutual fund market.

Anxious to do business in the world’s third-largest economy, where the population is aging, The Hartford is expanding into Germany.

PIMCO has named Mohamed El-Erian chief executive officer, a position he currently shares as co-CEO with Bill Thompson, who will be retiring at the end of the year.

Currency hedge funds reported an 0.11% loss in July, according to the Parker FX Index.

To help develop its financial system, China is going to support the launch of additional hedge funds, the South China Morning Post reports. However, Bejing is not going to give them a free hand; the government promises to police the funds and offer governing oversight.

Japanese investors are increasingly flocking to mutual funds that pay out monthly incomes or dividends, with such funds now accounting for 55.7% of all of the nation’s assets in funds, or $303 billion, Nikkei newswire reports.

Scotiabank has agreed to pay $15 million to acquire a 33% interest in a new mutual fund company that is being formed under the auspices of Bank of Beijing.