Mutual funds

Continuing a blitz of new fund and ETF activity over the past few weeks, BlackRock has filed to launch four more funds, including two multi-asset funds and two short-term bond funds, according to a report by Morningstar.

For the week ended Wednesday, October 17, investors injected $10.6 billion into open-end funds and exchange-traded funds and another $13.1 billion into money market funds, according to data from Lipper.

Franklin Templeton Investments announced the launch of its new online, interactive retirement center for advisors and plans sponsors on Thursday.

Vienna, Va.-based software company Eloqua, known for its marketing software, released Eloqua Asset Management, which it touts as the first-ever platform of marketing software aimed at institutional asset managers, mutual fund wholesalers and marketers in the financial services sector.

Putnam Advisory, a unit of Boston-based Putnam Investments, was charged yesterday by Massachusetts state regulators with deceiving investors who purchased about $3 billion in mortgage-related securities created and sold by Putnam several years ago.

BOSTON - The membership of the National Investment Service Company Association voted to change the trade association's legal name to simply NICSA.

The membership of the fund services industry association Thursday morning named five new directors to its board and Fred Naddaff of Sungard as the board's chairman.

In a financial services version of Woodstock 2012, more than a dozen exchange-trade fund providers including iShares, Vanguard and State Street have come together in an attempt to make ETFs as much a part of retail investors’ lexicon as mutual funds.

Think target-date funds are the default choice du jour for define contribution plan sponsors? Think again.

Curian, Putnam Investments and the John Hancock Funds have won top honors in the 10th Annual NOVA Awards, which honor outstanding leadership and achievement in mutual fund operations and marketing.

Riverbridge Partners, which recently agreed to a deal with Northhill Capital, is making a play for the retail space with its new partner.

Outflows from U.S. stock funds decelerated last week to $2.3 billion; bonds more than make up the loss.

A new finding by Invesco is sure to make a few exchange-trade fund providers smile.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. is looking to close the BBH Core Select fund (BBTEX, BBTRX) to new investors when total net assets in the fund reach approximately $3.5 billion.

If you want to avoid personal liability in, for instance, properly valuing the assets in funds you manage, involve other persons in the process is the “simple answer,’’ legal analysts say.

Long-term mutual funds experienced inflows of $7.04 billion for the week ended Wednesday, October 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

EGShares, the ETF arm of Emerging Global Advisors, launched a new emerging market ETF that—in a twist—will track an investment index rather than a benchmark index.

Investors have self-insured themselves well for a repeat of 2008, said the chief economist of Oppenheimer. But they're not ready for 2013.

NICSA Wednesday presented Jan Clifford, former president of the MFS Service Center, with its Lifetime Achievement Award, at its general membership meeting in Boston.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Scout Investments has launched the Scout Emerging Markets Fund (SEMFX), becoming one of the latest new funds seeking to capitalize on growing investor interest in emerging market plays.