Mutual funds

SEC chairman Mary Jo White made no comment Friday on what new reforms for the money market fund industry will come out of her administration, except that its proposal will be “appropriate and balanced.”

The Lloyd Blankfein Show

Goldman Sachs Group chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said China needs ‘bigger equity markets” if it hopes to continue its “pretty impressive growth” of the last two decades.

Emerging Global Advisors (EGA) is in the process of registering several actively managed ETFs investing in emerging markets, under the umbrella of the EGA Emerging Global Shares Trust.

Independent broker-dealers (IBDs) and RIAs have the edge over wirehouses when it comes to adding mutual fund assets under management, according to Access Data and Strategic Insight.

Robert Sharpe joined Heartland Advisors in the role of co-portfolio manager of the International Value Fund (HINVX), which invests in smaller equity dividend-payers in developed and emerging markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the trustees, chief compliance officer and fund administrator of a pair of mutual fund trusts with causing untrue or misleading disclosures about the factors they considered when approving or renewing investment advisory contracts on behalf of shareholders.

There may be global institutions with no leaders. Or U.S-led institutions that are not global. But no global institutions with U.S. running the show any longer, said Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group.

Globally, exchange traded products are scooping up assets on a faster pace than in 2012, according to BlackRock’s April 2013 ETP Landscape Report.

Finding something, anything, or any combination of investments that can generate an annual return of 5% on assets is a challaenge, as baby boomers retire at the rate of 10,000 per day.

“We are seeing good cyclical improvement,’’ Mary John Miller, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. told the general membership meeting of the Investment Company Institute in its policy forum Wednesday. “Now e need to tackle longer-term structural improvement.’’

David Silver, who served as president of the Investment Company Institute from 1977 to 1991, has died.

Investors plunged back into bond funds with gusto for the week ended April 24, after two consecutive weeks of taking their foot off the petal, according to estimates from the Investment Company Institute.

Contributions to be Defined

If the net asset value of a money market fund is forced to float, the ramifications on maintaining customer accounts are huge and could force them to move to other investments.

Sanford Bernstein, AllianceBerstein’s sell-side research arm, has a new head of sales. Rick Galiardo, joins the company in the role, which includes responsibility for the firm’s private label mutual fund sales.

Neuberger Berman has hired 22 emerging markets debt (EMD) investment professionals, 19 of whom have joined the firm from ING Investment Management, where they managed over US$16 billion in EMD assets.

Direxion has added two new leveraged inverse products to its repertoire. The Direxion Daily Brazil Bear 3x Shares (BRZS) seeks to capture 300% of the inverse performance of the MSCI Brazil 25/50 Index.

Invesco Ltd. (IVZ), owner of the Invesco, Van Kampen and PowerShares funds, said first-quarter profit rose 15 percent as record client deposits lifted assets.

Franklin Resources Inc. (BEN), manager of the Franklin and Templeton mutual funds, said fiscal second- quarter profit rose 14 percent as gains in global stock markets increased assets under management.