International funds

Goldman Sachs has gained approval to launch mutual funds in India, joining AIG and JPMorgan, Reuters reports.Adam Broder will lead Goldman Sachs Asset Management Company (India) Pvt Ltd, with Prashant Khemka taking the chief investment officer post, according to a statement from Goldman."India is one of the most important countries to our Asian business and we have a long-term strategic commitment to this market," Broder said.According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India, the country's 35 member funds industry managed about $125 billion at the end of July.

China's mutual fund sector posted record paper losses for the first half of the year, totaling $158 billion, or 1.08 trillion yuan, yet management fees more than doubled from a year ago, according to Shanghai Securities News.Equity mutual funds posted a combined unrealized loss of $155 billion, while money market funds showed a paper profit of $190 million.The huge drop comes at the end of a two-year bull run that raised share prices six-fold. The mutual fund sector grew nearly seven-fold to more than $439 billion, or 3 trillion yuan.

England's Financial Services Authority has found no evidence of a "concerted attempt by individuals" to alter share prices in Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) during the raid of its shares earlier this year, according to the Mondaq Business Briefing.HBOS' shares fell by 17% in 20 minutes on March 19 after someone spread false rumors that the bank had asked the Bank of England for an emergency loan. The panic came just days after the collapse of Bear Stearns in the U.S.Many officials suspect that hedge funds may have played a large role both incidents, though regulators have not been able to pin the blame on anyone yet.After four months of investigating, the FSA found no evidence of abuse. The agency stated that it would continue to watch for rumor-mongering "at a high level of intensity," and will take action if any evidence is found.The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

The chairman of Credit Suisse Group's alternative investments business said that his unit plans an international expansion for the recently acquired Asset Management Finance Corp., using joint ventures to enter new regions and sectors.Chairman Brian Finn said that by early next year Credit Suisse needs to put some Asset Management Finance executives internationally in cities like London or Zurich and eventually in Asia, possibly in Singapore or Hong Kong.He discussed the plans in an interview last week, after the Zurich firm bought 80% of the New York investment manager from National Bank Financial of Canada for $384 million of stock.Finn said that he hopes to have some international customers for Asset Management Finance by late next year."We think that there is a big global opportunity," Finn said. "We have developed a lot of joint ventures in Latin America, China, and the Middle East, but as a general matter as we look at investment managers in the U.S., we think the next few deals will be in more-developed markets."

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a 60-day public comment period to see whether the U.S. should adopt international reporting standards.

Credit Suisse Group announced it was acquiring a majority interest in Asset Management Finance Corp. of New York from National Bank Financial of Canada.

The European Commission’s legal certainty group (LGC) has issued a set of recommendations designed to help improve and harmonize post-trade securities processing across the European Union.

Citigroup plans to revamp its capital markets business under its investment-banking arm.

The chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission, Jun Kwang-woo, spoke out Monday about last week's reports that state-controlled Korea Development Bank was possibly interested in buying Lehman Brothers.

Mutual fund managers in China are waiting for the economic outlook to improve before they launch new funds, according to China Knowledge Press.Industry insiders say that as of Aug. 18, managers of 16 funds that have already received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, including nine stock funds and seven bond funds, are waiting to launch until the Chinese stock market and investor attitudes improve.According to official statistics, there were 88,000 new accounts for fund investment in July, down 19% from the prior month. There were 5 million new accounts added in August 2007.

Many alternative asset managers, who brag about their ability to make money regardless of market conditions, posted their worst figures in years last month after worldwide sentiment suddenly changed on energy prices, financial stock and the U.S. dollar.

Assets in mutual funds worldwide declined 5.1% to $24.81 trillion by the end of the first quarter, the Investment Company Institute announced Tuesday. It is the first decline in nearly four years, which the ICI attributed to the market’s decline, depreciation of the dollar and one country, Hong Kong, failing to report its figures.

Sharp money managers love market volatility.

As more investors begin to believe that the global economy is in a recession, fears of inflation are dropping, and money managers are turning their concerns from credit risk to leverage.

The Securities and Exchange Commission could mandate the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in mutual fund risk return summaries by as early as the first quarter of next year, according to industry experts, putting many fund companies on the data-tagging fast track.

Asset manager Threadneedle International Limited has launched two new mutual funds in the U.S., reaffirming its commitment to the U.S. marketplace.

Vanguard is now permitting its largest international fund, the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund, to purchase foreign stock directly, rather than through other Vanguard index funds.

Hedge funds are enjoying tremendous success in Hong Kong and Singapore, with the number of managers and assets under management going through the roof, according to data from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and Singapore’s Monetary Authority.

Fidelity Investments is returning to China’s stock markets, particularly consumer goods, healthcare and building companies, hoping to find values and that inflation has reached an apex, Reuters reports.

Despite hedge funds that have received returns on investments in commodities and emerging-market stocks, the hedge fund industry, as a whole, is set to turn in their worst monthly performance since July 2002.