Mutual funds

The big leadership issues facing executives in the asset management industry have multiplied in just a year, one reason why attendees at the upcoming NICSA Strategic Leadership Forum in Hollywood, Fla., might be hard-pressed to agree on a common concern.

Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo said asset managers could pose potential risks in a future crisis if they are forced into fire sales, and said new regulations might be warranted to promote stability.

Now more than ever, all asset managers face a challenging and rapidly evolving environment that poses both risk and opportunity in technology as we look toward the end of this decade.

Franklin Resources, manager of the Franklin and Templeton mutual funds, said fiscal first-quarter profit fell 6.2% as investors pulled money from the firm’s best-known global bond funds.

The biggest challenge for any new firm considering an entry into the ETF market is overcoming the regulatory hurdles placed between a product and customers. Few understand that difficulty as keenly as Eric R. Ervin, CEO and co-founder of San Diego, Calif.,-based ETF provider Reality Shares.

Invesco said fourth-quarter profit rose 5.6% as client assets increased.

A new effort by President Obama to tighten cybersecurity at financial institutions and other businesses could help light a fire under some firms that have historically been slower to react in the wake of a data breach and help financial institutions dealing with a tangle of confusing state laws.

The bond market's main concern is the ballooning ETF industry and how it has shaken up the traditional way to buy and sell debt.

Iran will get its first index exchange- traded fund tomorrow with the instrument’s creator betting on growing foreign demand for the nation’s stocks as it nears a deal to end sanctions over its nuclear program.

Buy an index fund and let the bull market guide you to a 44% gain. Most money managers who actually pick stocks couldn't match the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, let alone beat it. Thanks to three weeks of volatility, that’s beginning to change.

Defense in the cyberworld is difficult. The invisible duplication of information is intrinsic to computerized systems. Adding to this complexity, we now use global-spanning IT systems with numerous known and unknown dependencies.

PRIMECAP, Dodge and Cox, Western Asset and Boston Partners are the latest winners of the Morningstar U.S. Fund Manager of the Year awards.

Deborah Fuhr, a veteran ETF industry observer, says the explosive growth of ETFs is vindication for a product once dismissed by some investment professionals. In a discussion with Money Management Executive, Fuhr outlines factors that have led to the market's enthusiastic acceptance of ETFs.

The top regulator of mutual funds, private equity and hedge funds at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will step down later this month.

As digital strategies move to the forefront, asset management firms are changing the way they think about their brands, how they communicate their offerings to potential clients - and the teams building that marketing outreach.

BlackRock’s chief executive officer has warned the retreat of banks as counterparties in credit will create severe volatility. Regulators are preparing new rules for mutual funds to ensure that a sudden stampede out of funds won’t result in a downward price spiral that threatens the financial system.

Federal authorities are considering expanded regulation of large mutual fund companies, a move that opponents say threatens to bleed value out of the fund industry and aims to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

The industry in 2014 saw Pimco bleed billions after the abrupt departure of Bill Gross in September, while BlackRock reaped the benefits of that disarray. BlackRock's iShares ETFs captured $102.8 billion in investments in 2014. Also, Vanguard announced it would offer its first ETF focused on the $3.6 trillion U.S. municipal bond market, and a Cerulli study detailed the state of the annuities market.

Pimco will fight a lawsuit by a shareholder of its Total Return Fund alleging the company gouges investors with excessive advisory fees to support billion-dollar bonuses for top executives.

Dimensional is among a small group of managers toppling the dominance of firms such as Fidelity Investments and Capital Group, which have built their reputations on picking individual stocks. Among the fastest-growing U.S. mutual fund firms after assets surged almost six-fold in the past decade, Dimensional attracted almost $28 billion in new money in 2014.