Mutual funds

Don't Regulate Money Funds Like Banks: Fed Chairman

The Investment Company Institute has named Dean R. Sackett III and Donald C. Auerbach as leaders of its government affairs staff.

Congress is considering whether to make major revisions to the fair-value accounting rules that have created so much controversy lately. Possible changes include suspending the rules, improving value-at-risk measurements and reinstating the uptick rule.

Invesco's Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management plans to take advantage of the "chaos" in the financial services industry to add assets and customers, according to its new chief executive officer.

The mutual fund industry is eager to hear the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case that could determine the fate of the Gartenberg standard, an old legal precedent used to determine whether mutual fund fees are too high that has set a high burden of proof for investors and spared the industry from lawsuits.

Two financial industry leaders are calling on Congress to enact concrete fiduciary standards to help restore investors' trust in Wall Street and the capital markets.

Integrity Mutual Funds has sold its mutual fund division to the employee-owned Corridor Investors and Viking Fund Management.

Money market funds netted $10.71 billion in the week ended March 11, even as the seven-day simple yield fell to a record low of 29 basis points. Assets in money funds now total $3.835 trillion.

For the past two years, activists have implored large fund companies to divest holdings in securities linked to human rights abuses. Now Vanguard has decided to make socially responsible investing screening official.

Fidelity has launched three mutual funds with a long-term focus designed for sale by financial advisers—the Fidelity Advisor Global Balanced, Fidelity Advisor Worldwide and Fidelity Advisor Convertible Securities funds.

The Investment Company Institute has named Dean R. Sackett III and Donald C. Auerbach as leaders of its government affairs staff.

While they have been testing the social networking waters sporadically for as long as the past two years, fund companies are increasingly turning to social networks to communicate with investors.

Fidelity Investments is treating investors’ unease with the markets as an opportunity to help them revisit their retirement goals, risk tolerance, household budget and preparedness for job loss, by holding 500 seminars around the nation, offering online tools and running ads.

Unlike his predecessor, Paul Volcker, the current chairman of the Federal Reserve doesn’t believe money market funds should be regulated like banks, with reserve requirements and mandatory insurance.

Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a case three investors in Oakmark Funds had brought over what they alleged to be excessive fees failed to meet the burden of proof, setting an important precedent that protected fund firms against such cases.

Citi’s transfer agent business has been awarded five stars by National Quality Review. Servicing 10 million shareholder accounts, it is one of the largest transfer agent providers in North America. National Quality Review bases its ratings on real customer inquiries.

After reaching a peak of $1 trillion last June, hedge funds-of-funds took in $300 billion in redemptions, or a 30% decline, Investhedge said. Today, hedge funds-of-funds have $744 billion in assets.

Despite the plummeting economy, most 401(k) participants are staying calm and behaving normally, according to 2008 year-end data from the Investment Company Institute.

Approximately 37% of investors are participating in target-date funds when their employer offers one, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Reserve Management's board has set aside $3.5 billion of the remaining assets in its failed Primary Fund to cover costs and expenses for pending lawsuits against the fund.