Mutual funds

In a new ad campaign, New York Life aims to distinguish itself from AIG and the growing host of other beleaguered financial services companies by emphasizing its long history, big surplus, AAA rating and customer-focused, mutual ownership structure.

Most Americans have started to reduce spending, according to a survey from TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. conducted by Opinion Research.

NEW YORK - In the wake of the ongoing credit crisis and illiquid money market, much of it due to the failure of a single money market mutual fund, the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to overhaul Rule 2-a7. Separately, the Department of the Treasury is looking into creating a market stability regulator with omniscient powers across the "entire financial system."

NEW YORK - As credit freezes up and liquidity all but vanishes, there is an enormous temptation for financial institutions and investors to hold on to their cash and brace for the worst.

New Hampshire regulators have fined a now-defunct mortgage company, First Call Mortage, in which Peter Lynch of Fidelity fame had a 13% stake, The Wall Street Journal reports. As such, Lynch faces an $85,000 fine, and First Call, $767,500.

Equity mutual funds have lost $43.3 billion in outflows already through Oct. 8, while money market mutual funds have reaped $60 billion, according to TrimTabs Investment Research.

With just $6 billion in assets left, of what once totaled $83 billion, Reserve Management is liquidating its 18 remaining funds.

The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed several large firms and agencies as part of an investigation to determine whether Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. misled investors before its Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing, according to the Stamford Advocate.

Investors are continuing to add money to money market funds, adding $49.39 billion during the week ending Oct. 7, according to the Money Fund Report, published by iMoneyNet Inc. Total assets are now at $3.388 trillion.

Putnam Investments has named Jeffrey R. Carney as the new senior managing director and head of global marketing and products, effective Oct. 27.

Moody’s has downgraded Legg Mason’s senior debt from A2 to A3, on concerns over poor mutual fund performance and the $2 billion that Legg Mason has pledged to backstop money market funds, the Baltimore Business Journal reports.

For many investors, buying into and saving for the retirement American dream is no longer a reality, according to a new survey from AARP of 1,628 workers over age 45, conducted last month.

The credit crisis fueled a substantial 33% increase in asset management mergers and acquisitions in the third quarter, compared to 3Q07, Jefferies Putnam Lovell announced Tuesday. There were 69 M&A deals across the globe, up from 52 a year earlier.

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday it will buy up to $1.3 trillion of the top-rated asset-backed and unsecured commercial paper in the markets—virtually a business loan bailout due to frozen money markets, the closest the government has come to making loans to businesses directly.

NEW YORK—In the wake of the ongoing credit crisis and illiquid money market, much of it due to the failure of a single money market mutual fund, the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to overhaul Rule 2a-7. Separately, the Department of the Treasury is looking into creating a market stability regulator with omniscient powers across the "entire financial system."

Lord Abbett Promotes 17 Executives to Partner

Treasury Opens Money Fund Guarantee Program

CHICAGO - When it comes to choosing derivative instruments, some portfolio managers still think the more complicated they are, the better.

Investors in the now-defunct Primary Fund got their first indication of when they can expect redemptions last Monday, when Reserve Management announced it would return 32% of the fund's assets as of Sept. 15, or $20 billion, on Oct. 13.

With financial pundits repeatedly talking about a return to the Great Depression, how to find a sound bank with FDIC backing and now, even, how to stretch food budgets, national news media, advertisers and entertainment programs, are coming up just short of instilling wholesale investor hysteria.