Mutual funds

Non-traditional investment allocations in defined contribution plans, while commonplace in defined benefit pension portfolios, are a rare sight in today's retirement plan lineup.

Mutual fund companies are facing ongoing challenges in overseeing their financial intermediary relationships as omnibus processing and the reliance on FIs continue to increase, according to a new survey by Boston Financial Data Services.

Investors overreacted to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments that the central bank could reduce monthly bond purchases, Goldman Sachs Group Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said.

Municipal bond mutual funds that report flows weekly recorded $4.53 billion in outflows for the week of June 26, Lipper FMI numbers showed, after $2.22 billion of outflows reported the previous week.

Bond managers from DoubleLine Capital LP’s Jeffrey Gundlach to Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross are telling investors the worst may be over for Treasury bonds after 10-year yields rose to a 22-month high.

Schroders, the $359.2 billion global asset manager, has added four new mutual funds its investment lineup for the U.S. market.

It looks like Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company will have its day in court come January 2014 to defend itself against a mutual fund lawsuit.

Tax-exempt money market funds had outflows of $314.7 million in the week ended June 24, decreasing total net assets to $261.48 billion, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Hartford Funds has appointed three new advisor consultants to support its regional growth.

OppenheimerFunds, the U.S. investment fund that manages about $208 billion, has sued Doux SA in New York, claiming it’s owed almost $74 million by the French poultry producer placed under administration.

Last year, global asset managers experienced their highest operating margins since 2007, according to a new survey by consultant Casey Quirk and research shop McLagan.

It’s not all good news on Wall Street these days.

Assets of all exchange-traded funds rose in May by $12.14 billion to $1.481 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute. Over the past 12 months, ETF assets rose $365.27 billion, or 32.7%.

During the week ended June 19, investors yanked an estimated $7.97 billion from taxable and municipal bond funds.

Mutual funds gave back $5.43 billion for the week ended Wednesday, June 19, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Broadridge Financial Solutions has agreed to acquire Bonaire Software Solutions, a provider of fee calculation, billing, and revenue and expense management solutions for asset managers including institutional asset managers, wealth managers, mutual funds, bank trusts, hedge funds and capital markets firms.

The Hartford Funds has named Brian Garrette and Michael Tobin divisional sales managers, overseeing the mutual fund company's south and west regions, respectively.

Janus Capital Group has appointment Jeff Pawliger as regional director with Janus' Advisor Solutions Group to spearhead the growth of Janus' intermediary distribution and sales in Southern Florida.

Direxion has launched two leveraged exchange-traded funds that track Japanese equity market performance.

Little Silver, NJ-based WBI Investments has added two mutual funds to its lineup: the WBI Absolute Return Balanced Plus Fund (WBPNX, WBBPX) and the WBI Absolute Return Dividend Income Fund (WBDNX, WBDIX), bringing the fund family to four funds.