Mutual funds

BlackRock has filed to create proprietary indexes for its iShares exchange-traded funds. The indexes will be "transparent to the public," the exemptive order says, indicating the indexes could be for actively managed ETFs.

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Touchstone Investments has launched the Touchstone Merger Arbitrage Fund, which will seek to achieve positive returns over the long-term, regardless of market conditions, by investing in companies involved in publicly announced mergers or other corporate reorganizations.

Columbia Management has launched the Columbia Acorn Emerging Markets Fund and the Columbia Acorn European Fund, each of which will invest in companies with market caps of less than $5 billion.

U.S. investors may be overly worried about the fate of the euro, and overly confident in the U.S. dollar.

Slightly more than $1 billion flowed back into mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks long-term, in the week ended Aug. 17.

Transamerica is planning to roll out the Transamerica Global Tactical Fund in October.

U.S. prime money market funds are lowering their exposure to European banks and holding shorter maturity securities, Fitch reports.

iShares has launched the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index Fund.

iShares has launched the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Small Cap Index Fund.

More than $40 billion flowed out of all forms of mutual funds in the week that featured the first-ever downgrade of U.S. debt.

Cantor Fitzgerald is in the process of launching an ETF Arbitrage business that will provide customers with two-sided ETF markets, encompassing full-service execution, research and market color.

During the first trading session after Standard & Poor's downgraded its rating of U.S. debt from AAA to AA+, investors got out of stocks and parked their money in ... U.S. Treasury bonds.

Investors took money out of U.S. bond and stock mutual funds because of the increase in economic uncertainty in July, according to research released on Friday by Strategic Insight.

Mutual fund asset growth worldwide is expected to rise by a moderate 10% this year, according to Financial Research Corp. By comparison, the industry’s assets rose 16% in 2010.

BNY Mellon to Cut 1,500, as Expenses Rise Faster than RevenuePrinter Friendly Email Reprints Reader Comments Share | August 10, 2011Tom Steinert-ThrelkeldBNY Mellon said Tuesday it planned to cut its work force by 3 percent or 1,500 positions, by year, as it sees expenses growing faster than revenue.Like what you see? Click here to sign up for Securities Technology Monitor's weekly newsletter to get the latest news and analysis that matters to the effective operation of capital markets.The cuts will come by year end, after a review by all businesses of the composition of its global workforce of 48,900, spokesman Kevin Heine said.The announcement of the cuts comes less than a month after the company posted solid earnings growth.The provider of asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and other investment services reported second quarter net income of $735 million, up from $658 million a year ago and $625 million in the first quarter of 2011."Over recent quarters, BNY Mellon has succeeded in building positive revenue momentum. However, expenses have been growing unsustainably faster," said Robert P. Kelly, BNY Mellon chairman and chief executive officer.In the past year, revenue has grown 19.6 percent, to $3.1 billion in the second quarter of this year. But staff, professional, legal, software and other “noninterest” expenses have risen 21.2 percent (see chart).Jobs are not the only target for expense reductions. The company also expects to rationalize technology picked up in a series of acquisitions in recent years, most notably the $2.3 billion purchase of the Global Investment Servicing Business of PNC Financial Services Group.In the company’s second quarter earnings call last month, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Gibbons said:There is some low-lying fruit. I mean, if you think about it, we've gone through a number of acquisitions over the past 3 or 4 years. So when we go back and reflect on our technology infrastructure, there's quite a bit we can attack there. We've got too many desktop configurations just the nature of our business model, and we're going to go after that. We also have some applications dating back to the Mellon Bank of New York merger, which we think we can sunset too, and we also for the first time are really looking at combining some of our common operations not just within asset servicing, but even across some of our different businesses.BNY Mellon is not planning to offer any voluntary departure packages, Heine said. Instead the company will rely on “natural turnover” and an immediate hiring freeze to hit its job cuts target.The company also expects to reduce its use of temporary workers, consultants and contractors

The Securities and Exchange Commission has upheld an administrative judge’s ruling that a mutual fund trader must pay more than $200,000 in penalties for accepting gifts from broker-dealers to steer trades their way.

2011 has not been a great year for international equity mutual funds, especially compared to domestic U.S. fund counterparts. But this situation could very well change and investors in the near future, according to analysts at Standard & Poor's Equity Research.

Long-term mutual funds were hit with -$10.381 billion in redemptions the week ended July 27, the Investment Company Institute said. This came on the heels of -$4.58 billion in redemptions the previous week.

American Century has launched the American Century Global Real Estate Fund, managed by Steven Brown. He will be supported by analysts Steven Rodriguez and Vishal Govil.