Investment funds

Prudential Investments has launched three new fixed income funds: the Prudential Floating Rate Income Fund, the Prudential Absolute Return Bond Fund and the Prudential Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency Fund.

Sixty-five percent of Americans do not know what a hedge fund is, according to a survey by Thesis Fund Management.

Franklin Templeton, Loomis Sayles and State Street will be the sub-advisors.

Tax-exempt money market funds saw only moderate outflows as investors yanked a mere $252.5 million in the week ended April 4, causing total net assets to dip slightly to $319.05 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Genworth Financial Wealth Management has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer six asset allocation funds that will be sub-advised by Franklin Templeton, Loomis Sayles and State Street Global Advisors.

Sub-advised fund assets topped $1.7 trillion in 2010, an all-time high, Financial Research Corp. said.

Equity funds net $1.2 billion.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Germany Small-Cap ETF, which the firm says is the first exchange-traded fund dedicated solely to Germany. Van Eck also notes that Germany is Europe’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest economy. Germany’s GDP grew 3.6% in 2010.

Dreyfus has launched the Dreyfus Global Dynamic Bond Fund, a dynamically managed fund that seeks both capital appreciation and income by investing in bonds, currencies, derivatives and other instruments that provide exposure to these asset classes. The fund has no investment constraints and is not managed to a benchmark index. Rather, it seeks to deliver positive returns regardless of market moves.

A New York judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit against State Street as the sponsor of a mutual fund, saying that even though the mutual fund misrepresented its risks, investors were not harmed. That's because the fund correctly calculated its net asset value.

Fidelity Investments has increased the size and capabilities of its London fixed income office, enhancing its ability to service institutional clients through Pyramis Global Advisors as well as Fidelity’s mutual fund clients in the U.S.

Lazard Asset Management has launched the Lazard Emerging Markets Multi-Strategy Portfolio, a mutual fund that will employ both emerging markets equity and debt strategies

But $1.42 billion is redeemed from equity funds.

MFS Investment Management has rolled out the MFS Global Multi-Asset and MFS Absolute Return funds in response to growing demand for greater portfolio diversification and lower volatility through multi-asset class funds.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- At the start of 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission established a specialized unit within its Enforcement Division devoted to the looking for fraud and other perfidies in the $40 trillion field of asset management.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has granted exemptive relief for iShares’ registration to offer actively managed equities and fixed income exchange-traded funds, which it filed nearly a year ago.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Back in 2007, no one talked about systemic risk. Now, the term “systemic risk” is on everyone’s minds. But defining it has not come out of the constant attention paid to it now.

An uptick in investor inflows and strong performance helped push the Neuberger Berman Equity Income Fund over the $1 billion milestone for the first time.

PALM DESERT, Calif. – It may have taken almost 18 years for the combined assets of exchange-traded funds to surpass a trillion dollars. But it should only take another three years to top the second trillion.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Registered investment companies vote in favor of management proposals more than 90 percent of the time, according to a study of 3.9 million proxy ballot items.