Mutual funds

After a series of high-profile losses in its money market fund sector, the Association of British Insurers has created the Deposit and Treasury sector, which will provide tighter controls on permitted investments.

Northern Trust Global Investments has been named the Investment Management Firm of the Year at ACQ Finance Magazine's third-annual awards ceremony.

JPMorgan Asset Management has named former Fortis Investment manager Pierre-Yves Bareau to lead its emerging markets debt unit, following last week's departure of two long-time emerging market bond managers at JPMorgan.

Hedge funds may have to change tactics, notably by cutting their leverage, and adapt to regulations that likely will restrict their investment strategies, according to a recent report about the $2 trillion alternative asset management industry published by Standard & Poor’s.

Broadridge Financial Solutions and DeltaConcept, a global provider of portfolio management solutions, have aligned to launch a Switzerland-based platform that provides front-to-back integrated solutions for private banks and asset managers.

Advanced Group Investments, a provider of global investment strategies in real estate, commodities, stocks and bonds, has launched a new social networking site for investors called AGI Club.

John Hancock Funds has launched the Technical Opportunities Fund, a diversified stock fund that is structured to allow the subadviser, Wellington Management, to invest up to 100% of the portfolio in cash if necessary. The fund is intended to provide a specialty strategy for retail portfolios.

Global investment management firm PIMCO has launched the PIMCO 1-5 Year U.S. TIPS Index Fund, a combination of three Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities exchanged-traded funds designed to focus on the short maturity segment of the TIPS market.

MetLife's Broker-Dealer Group has introduced MetLife Fund Management Services, an investment advisory solution targeted at emerging investors.

Edward Jones has adopted Delta Data's FUNDViews service to manage and maintain operational rule changes within its mutual fund security master tables in its brokerage platform.

UMB Financial Corp. is installing Advantage Fee software from Fiserv Inc. to streamline billing activities in its investment management units, Fiserv said.

A former UBS banker who cooperated with the U.S. investigation of the Swiss bank was sentenced to over three years in jail for helping a billionaire real estate developer evade $7.2 million in taxes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to undertake a “comprehensive, independent, zero-based regulatory review” of a broad range of market structure issues before “piecemeal changes to the current market structure” exacerbate potential execution unfairness and make matters worse, says U.S. Sen. Edward E. Kaufman (D-Del.).

Fidelity Investment's timely staff cuts and careful positioning of its financial service units is paying off this year and contributing to market share gains, according to the fund giant.

Sales and national accounts professionals saw average compensation losses ranging from 10% to 30% in 2008, but with smart management, top producers will be well-positioned for a recovery in 2010, according to a new study by kasina.

Wall Street's M&A business for asset management companies will be fueled by strategic expansion purchases and corporate divestitures over the coming year, according to a new survey by Jefferies Putnam Lovell.

Investors who have a more optimistic outlook appear to be better prepared for retirement, Fidelity said. Eighty-three percent of optimists are more likely to expect a comfortable lifestyle in retirement, versus 61% of pessimists.

Standard and Poor’s released the findings of its mid-year 2009 Standard & Poor’s Index Versus Active Fund Scorecard (SPIVA), showing that for the past five years through June 30, the S&P 500 beat 63% of actively managed large-cap funds.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Vietnam exchange-traded fund, linked to the VN-Index, which is up 61% so far this year.

When working with clients to build a portfolio and set a final savings goal before retiring, more financial advisers are concentrating on clients’ goals and asking them not to focus on performance, BusinessWeek reports.