Mutual funds

Industry leader SEI recently concluded in a white paper that collective investment trusts (CITs) are becoming more popular in the defined-contribution retirement market. In the first quarter of 2008 alone, 63 new collective trusts were launched, and from 2004 to 2007 CIT assets actually tripled.

In an already crowded field, Northern Trust Corp. is the latest financial-services company to try and make its mark in the exchange-traded fund business.

CHICAGO -- Weekly reporting municipal bond mutual funds had a net inflow of $815 million during the period ending May 21, AMG Data Services reported.

We were rather startled when we read as a sidenote in a story on money market mutual fund flows in The Wall Street Journal the other day that Financial Research Corp., the go-to source for industry- and firm-wide sales data, would no longer be publishing its figures.

Vanguard Group announced that it has added Edinburgh Partners Ltd. as a sub-advisor to its international value fund.

WASHINGTON-Market participants hailed last Tuesday's long-awaited but widely expected Supreme Court decision that upheld 42 states' preferential tax treatment of their bonds as a "resounding victory" for the municipal securities market.

Evergreen Investment Management Co. LLC is trying to expand by pulling together its disparate pieces, improving its ability to sell products and moving into more foreign markets.

REIT Fund Redux

ING Names Brown Retail Annuity President

The nearly $80 billion that was pulled from money market funds in April was the highest monthly total in 16 years.

The information technology sector has surpassed financials as the largest sector in the S&P 500 index for the first time since early 2002, Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst for Standard & Poor's, told BusinessWeek.com.

The move to XBRL filings will roll out in stages, with about 500 so-called large domestic and foreign issuers expected to submit XBRL versions of financial reports this winter. This is according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which earlier this month issued a rule proposal concerning XBRL adoption.

Morgan Stanley has been shuffling executives and its sales strategy for its Van Kampen mutual fund unit, The Wall Street Journal reports. The funds are part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which has $600 billion in assets and accounted for 40% of the firm's income before taxes in 2007.

Fidelity Ventures is backing several new Internet start-ups in hopes of competing with online giant eBay.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously last Wednesday on a proposal that would require mutual funds to provide risk/return, fee and strategy information using the same new digital data tagging system as the 500 largest U.S. corporations.

Wachovia Corp. plans to phase out the 121-year-old A.G. Edwards name, sacrificing a strong brand for a stronger one.

Talk about tapping into the powers that be inside the Beltway.

PHILADELPHIA - Boards may have grown in power since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, but mutual fund companies should take care to temper that influence so it doesn't interfere with business.

The information technology sector has surpassed financials as the largest sector in the S&P 500 index for the first time since early 2002, Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst for Standard & Poor’s, told BusinessWeek.com.

Nuveen Investments Inc. is developing a debt instrument to allow the refinancing of billions of dollars in frozen auction-rate securities.