Mutual funds

Wilmington Trust has promoted Adrian Cronje to chief investment strategist. He joined the firm in 2005 from Schroder Investment Management in London, where he was director, deputy head of quantitative equity products.

UBS has distanced itself from responsibility for clients’ unspecified losses in one of its Luxembourg mutual funds that invested in Bernard Madoff’s funds, the Financial Times reports. The marketing and subscription documents for the $1.4 billion Luxalpha Sicav fund state that it is not UBS that is responsible for fund losses but U.S. broker/dealer Access Management.

Total assets of money market mutual funds dropped slightly during the week ending Dec. 17, falling $2.96 billion to settle at $3.775 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.This marks the first weekly decline in overall assets since late September. During their 11-week run, money fund assets increased by $321.2 billion, or 9.3%.Retail money market mutual fund assets rose by $1.57 billion to $1.284 trillion for the week. Of those, taxable fund assets rose $2.08 billion to $985.75 billion and tax-exempt assets fell $507 million to $297.91 billion.Institutional money market fund assets fell $4.53 billion to $2.491 trillion for the week. Among those funds, taxable assets fell $2.7 billion to $2.306 trillion and tax-exempt assets fell $1.83 billion to $184.7 billion.Money fund assets have increased $630.5 billion year-to-date, or 20%, for what could be their second-best increase ever. The best year was 2007, with a gain of $760 billion in new assets. Institutional assets increased $508.0 billion, or 25.6%, and retail assets have increased $122.5 billion, or 10.5%.The seven-day average yield fell from 0.94% to 0.88%, while the 30-day average yield fell from 1.09% to 1.01%, according to iMoneyNet Inc.'s Money Fund Report.The seven-day compound yield also dropped, falling from 0.95% to 0.89% for the week, and the 30-day compound yield fell from 1.09% to 1.02%.The average maturity of money fund portfolios was 50 days, up from 48.

This was a tough year to launch any new product, and exchange-traded funds were no exception.While ETFs were anticipated by many to overtake mutual funds due to their ability to trade like stocks, the crippling global economic crisis of 2008 put a halt to that growth for now, forcing dozens of new ETFs to close and hundreds more to delay launching until conditions improve.Approximately 70% of the 730 U.S.-based ETFs opened in the last three years, but that pace has slowed significantly this past fall. Many ETFs based on the healthcare industry are liquidating, such as those of New York ETF firm XShares Advisors, and many exchange-traded products based on commodities like oil have been hammered by extremely volatile price swings.Actively managed ETFs also failed to garner widespread support in 2008.

In a speech this week at the National Press Club in Washington, Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens reported that only 3% of 401(k) plan participants stopped contributing to their plans in the first 10 months of 2008, despite a staggering 40% decline in the stock market. The ICI based its figures on an analysis of the records of 22.5 million plan participants.

One-quarter of 401(k) participants have money invested in a lifecycle fund, but, on average, only 7% of DC plan assets are invested in such funds, according to a joint report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Investment Company Institute.

Dreyfus has launched the Dreyfus Global Sustainability Fund, linked to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. It is the first time a U.S. mutual fund has tracked the index.

President-elect Barack Obama has named regulatory veteran Mary Schapiro to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission after he takes office next month.

Legg Mason has hired Peter Sundman as president and chief executive officer of its ClearBridge Advisors subsidiary.

Fidelity Investments has been taking advantage of new changes to 403(b) regulations to expand its presence in the higher education retirement business, adding more than 50 new plans this year.

The U.S. could see a 70% decline in the number of mutual fund families over the next five years unless regulations are changed to put them on a more equal footing with hedge funds, according to a new report by the Boston research firm Celent, titled: “The Global Credit Crisis: Implications for North American Wealth Management.”

In a final year-end push, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 4-1 Wednesday to require mutual funds and the top 500 largest public companies to begin filing financial reports using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).

Eight Nuveen Investments closed-end funds have called for redemption of $700 million in auction-rate preferred securities at par.

Harris Associates has promoted Rob Taylor from associate portfolio manager on the Oakmark International Fund to co-portfolio manager, along with David Herro, who is also the firm’s chief investment officer of international equities.

Most executives wouldn't consider themselves "fortunate" if they took over one of the largest fund companies weeks before an historic market collapse.

Direxion Shares has launched six new exchange-traded funds that offer 300% leverage to the markets.

Reserve Funds has informed investors that due to a potential accounting error on Sept. 15, the Reserve Yield Plus Fund might have broken the buck at 99 cents.

Calvert has launched three new funds, the Calvert Large Cap Value Fund, Calvert High Yield Bond Fund and Calvert Short-Term Government Fund.

The majority of money managers feel that the U.S. markets are undervalued, according to the Russell Investments “Investment Manager Outlook” for December 2008. The survey polled 206 asset managers on their expectations for the U.S. equity markets for 2009.

Pioneer Investments has migrated its data management to a DataFlux platform through which its portfolio managers and analysts can analyze and monitor information via a single platform and interface, and IT staff can take a more proactive approach to data management.