Investments

Citigroup has hired Sanjiv Sawhney as global head of fund services, a new position. He was previously head of fund services operations at JP Morgan and is returning to Citi, where he began his career and served for 15 years.

Financial advisors are looking forward to 2010. In fact, 68% of advisers recently surveyed define their 2010 business mindset as one of acceleration and growth.

Inflows and performance take funds to pre-crisis levels.

Citigroup has hired Sanjiv Sawhney as global head of fund services, a new position. He was previously head of fund services operations at JP Morgan and is returning to Citi, where he began his career and served for 15 years.

Being owned by a bank has handcuffed many mutual fund units. Just don’t tell that to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s J.P. Morgan Funds.

Natixis Global Associates, in conjunction with Absolute Asia Asset Management, has launched the Absolute Asia Dynamic Equity Fund, a multi-cap fund that will invest in Asian companies, ex-Japan. It is the first fund offered in the United States by the Singapore-based Absolute Asia management team, which has been headquartered in the region for more than a decade.

Delaware Investments has launched the Delaware Diversified Floating Rate Fund, which will invest across the fixed income investments spectrum for those investors looking for exposure to floating-rate securities; at least 80% of its assets will be in floating-rate securities.

The New York company announced Monday that it has hired a former T. Rowe Price executive to lead its charge in the bank channel.

The law firm of Berman DeValerio has filed a class-action lawsuit against broker/dealer PrimeVest Financial Services and two of its subsidiaries for allegedly overcharging investors nearly $5,000 in sales charges on Class A mutual funds by failing to apply sales breakpoint discounts.

U.S. News Media Group has created an online portal scoring 4,500 funds by integrating the rankings of Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, TheStreet.com and Standard & Poor’s.

After adding 18 wealth managers in the Southeast in the past five months, Wilmington Trust Corp. plans to continue to expand in the region as it looks to cross-sell more products and services to its existing customers.

Fidelity International has fired two Hong Kong-based fund managers for what it said were breaches of its ethics policy.

Combined assets in the nation's mutual funds decreased by $234.5 billion, or 2.1% to $10.886 trillion in January, according to a survey by the Investment Company Institute.

Combined assets in the nation's mutual funds decreased by $234.5 billion, or 2.1% to $10.886 trillion in January, according to a survey by the Investment Company Institute.

If the U.S. mutual fund industry would like a clearer picture of what would happen to sales if fees—particularly up-front, sales load, 12b-1 or 401(k) fees—were disclosed, it need only take a look at the disastrous results in India.

The American Council of Life Insurers is taking issue with a proposal by the White House to tax the “non-earned” income — for advisers, this includes annuity income — of people making $200,000 or more per year at 2.9% to help pay for Medicare.

Traditional value has its fans Benjamin Graham for one but Evermore’s David Marcus says that approach can lead to a “value trap.”

Whitehouse plans to tax the “non-earned” income of high earners to pay for Medicare could hurt annuity sales, claims a lobbyist for the insurance industry.

Although women are just as optimistic as men about the stock market, women are much less confident about their investment decisions, according to a survey by MassMutual.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Financial Services Authority are members, starting in September will ask hedge funds to provide high-level, bi-annual snapshots of: their stock and bond holdings, geographic and underlying currency exposure, leverage levels, sales and redemptions, investor classifications, primary marketing channels, recent performance, and operations and technology details, including turnover, clearing mechanisms and risk measures.