Mutual funds

The Social Investment Forum has elected five new members to its board, for two-year terms beginning Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2011.

Northern Trust Corp. announced Monday that it will cut 450 positions, or about 4% of its workforce, to offset $300 million in third-quarter charges to support its money market funds. This will result in a pre-tax charge of $20 million to $25 million in the fourth quarter, or five cents to seven cents per share.

All asset managers are looking at cutting their budgets next year, according to a survey of 100 firms by SwanDog Strategic Marketing and Financial Research Corp. Two-thirds are looking at cuts of between 10% and 20% and the remaining third are expecting to slash their budgets by 30% or more.

This year's shrinkage in assets under management in U.S. funds could reach 29%, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.

Fidelity Investments announced Monday that its HybridOne platform, launched in June, has attracted $13 billion in assets. The platform is designed for firms with a mix of commission and fee business, which is one of the fastest-growing brokerage segments in the U.S.

Three Named to Board of Money Management Inst.

By overturning a lower court's dismissal of a case against former Columbia Funds executives James Tambone and Robert Hussey, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is permitting the Securities and Exchange Commission to proceed with its market-timing lawsuit against the two men.

David R. Holst, 43, a mortgage broker in Tucson, Ariz., pleaded guilty to gambling $350,000 from mutual fund investor clients. He accepted the charges of securities fraud and filing a false income tax return. Holst admitted to setting up a financial advisory business that pretended to invest clients' money in mutual funds. Instead, he took the clients' money, lost it gambling at a casino, and subsequently doctored statements to make it look like he had created mutual fund accounts for the clients. Holst, who will be sentenced in federal court on Feb. 12, faces up to 25 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines.

Ready or not, the deadline to update 403(b) plans is here.

Mutual fund companies ask investors to look at past performance and judge their offerings based on their performance relative to a benchmark.

Moody's Affirms Fidelity A1 Senior Rating

American Century Investments has been hammered by the market downturn but is positioning itself for brisk growth at home and abroad, according to its top executive.

Financial industry analysts are anticipating a wave of new regulations to come out of this financial crisis, but with any luck, mutual funds will escape a direct hit.

Clients withdrew cash from municipal bond mutual funds at a clip not seen since October.

Total assets of money market mutual funds rose $34.48 billion during the week ending Dec. 10, to settle at $3.777 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Investment managers will now be able to automate, centralize and standardize purchases, exchanges and redemptions directly though the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s Fund/SERV and other mutual fund services, instead of having to go through a third party.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday fined eight former Fidelity traders $1.04 million for accepting lavish gifts from brokers, not least of which included trips on private jets and courtside sports tickets.

With interest rates falling so low, it will soon cost more for fund companies to run somemoney market funds than their investments, The Wall Street Journal reports. Rather than step in to make investors whole or permit their funds to break the buck, some money funds will likely close.

Fidelity International and its U.K. partner Dalton Strategic Partnership will be saying goodbye to David Urch and Jonathan Cobb, two high-profile equity portfolio managers they hired to work in the Edinburgh office just before the credit crunch, Dow Jones reports.

The Epiphany Fund, which invests according to Catholic principles, can’t exactly boast that it is bucking the trend of most mutual funds going into the red. It’s down 33.5% so far this year.