Mutual funds

Fidelity Investments is laying off 550 workers, most of them among its 5,700-employee facility in Merrimack, N.H., where mutual fund and human resource customers are served, according to various reports.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a pair of initiatives designed to strengthen its position in the asset management market.

Moody’s has placed the triple-A insurer financial strength ratings for Ambac Assurance Corp. and MBIA Insurance Corp. on review for a possible downgrade.

A new study released by Strategic Insight pointed out that traditional point-of-sale commissions for mutual fund sales are close to being extinct. Of all the sales in 2007, 60% occurred without any front-end loads.

Dow Jones Indexes was named the “Most Innovative ETF Index Provider of 2007” in the Americas at the 4th annual Global ETF Awards.

On Thursday, San Francisco’s Forward Management LLC unveiled its latest plan to acquire Seattle’s Accessor Capital Management LLC.

Walter Ricciardi, the Security and Exchange Commission’s deputy director of the Division of Enforcement, announced he will retire this month to join the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as a partner.

Two titans of fundamentally weighted indexes are being compared to the funds they created, in the hopes of stirring up a little excitement.

Joseph D. Kringdon has left his position as managing director, Eastern regional director of sales at Putnam Investments to become executive vice president, head of U.S. retail distribution at Pioneer Investments.

Wells Fargo & Co. and UMB Financial Corp. have each succeeded in the health savings account business, but many of their customers have come through unexpected routes.

While data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows that hedge funds’ bets against the U.S. greenback have risen by 36% so far this year, Deseret Morning News reports, mutual funds and other institutional investors are raising their stakes in the dollar.

WASHINGTON - Mutual fund companies and their attendant banking channel need to engage the mass affluent, rather than simply chasing the wealthy, if they seriously want to develop their retirement businesses.

Despite strict guidelines and barriers within China, which tend to turn off global fund houses from conducting business, Fidelity International is ready and willing to pursue joint ventures there sometime in the near future.

Advisers are routinely using non-industry websites, particularly YouTube, and bank online in larger numbers than expected, says a new study tracking e-business habits. The findings have implications for asset managers across the industry.

In what some in the industry are heralding as a backhanded acknowledgement of 12b-1 fees, the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering putting a cap on the controversial level-loads.

Allianz Global Investors Taps Nancy Morris as VP

His firm may sponsor only three small exchange-traded funds right now, but if Sean O'Hara, president of RevenueShares Investor Services of Paoli, Pa., has his druthers, there'll be revenue-weighted ETFs in every investor's portfolio someday. With that in mind, the firm will be offering 10 additional sector ETFs within weeks, with more to come later this year.

Welcome to Money Management Executive's 6th Annual Fund Operations Awards.

This Tuesday, June 3, the Senate Banking Committee will consider three nominations to the Securities and Exchange Commission, possibly paving the way for a number of mutual fund measures to be decided upon.

Many mutual fund industry analysts are skeptical that the Securities and Exchange Commission will take final action on any of its outstanding proposals this year, but if it does, the summary prospectus and XBRL tagging are likely to top the list, with a proposal on changes to 12b-1 fees to follow in 2009.