Money Management Executive articles from April 2005

Money Management Executive archives from April 2005

Dreyfus, Pimco, Columbia Post Personal Investor Info.
April 4, 2005... Some of the biggest mutual fund companies in the country disclosed personal information about their shareholders on the Securities and Exchange Commission Web site, The Wall Street Journal discovered. The list of fund companies that made...

SMAs Prep for Compliance Exams: Former SEC Attorneys Offer Tip Sheet.(Separately Managed Account)(Securities and Exchange Commission)
April 4, 2005... PHILADELPHIA - Having borne witness to the mutual fund trading scandal, the separately managed account industry, recognizing the perils of potential enforcement actions, is now focused on identifying trouble spots before the SEC comes knocking...

Large-Caps May Get Their Day in the Sun: Small-Cap Funds Appear Ready for Shift from Value to Growth.
April 4, 2005... With the first quarter of 2005 in the books, nearly everyone in the mutual fund industry is curious whether this could be the year that large-cap funds finally overtake their small-cap counterparts. Year-to-date through March 24, small-cap...

Ongoing Enforcement Raises Eyebrows: Industry Watchers Mixed Over Weight of Penalties.
April 4, 2005... Although the fund industry continues to reel from 19 months of Fundgate, a few industry executives believe that neither the SEC's $20 million settlement with Citigroup nor the $6.25 million fine NASD imposed on the company over improper sales...

American Funds Battles CA Over Broker Kickbacks.(California, Bill Lockyer, American Funds Group)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... The companies that manage and distribute American Funds sued California's attorney general, claiming he does not have the jurisdiction to regulate the disclosure of deals with brokers who market its products. Attorney General Bill Lockyer...

iShare Ads Tout New You'.(advertising)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Expanding on its "New School of Investing" theme, iShares is launching an ad campaign entitled "New You." The campaign reaches advisers through television, print and online ads, as well as direct marketing, sales materials and a revamped Web...

Executive Moves.(Dreyfus Service Corp. appointed Thomas F. Eggers, Fidelity Investments appointed Jonathan Shelon, Ibbotson Associates appointed Tom Idzorek)
April 4, 2005... Eggers Returns to Dreyfus Thomas F. Eggers, who worked for Dreyfus from 1996 until 2002, serving most recently as president, has rejoined the company, again as president, effective last Friday. Eggers returns to Dreyfus from Scudder...

Fair Value Pricing: Still an IT Hot Spot.(Investment Technology)
April 4, 2005... Fair value pricing continues to be a red-hot topic for mutual fund advisors as well as for Securities and Exchange Commission examiners. There is a heightened awareness among investment managers of the importance of fairly valuing...

ICI Favors Web-Based Disclosure at Point of Sale.(Investment Company Institute)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... The Investment Company Institute is urging regulators to designate the Internet as the primary medium for point of sale disclosure on the costs and conflicts of interest associated with broker-sold mutual funds. In a comment letter to the...

U.S. Justice Dept. Joins Probe Into Jefferies Gifts.(Jefferies and Company Inc., Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Association of Securities Dealers)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... The United States Justice Department has joined the Securities and Exchange Commission and NASD in investigating gifts Jefferies brokers allegedly gave to mutual fund companies, the firm indicated in its annual report. Regulators are also...

Embattled Morgan Chief, Execs Meet with Fidelity.(Philip Purcell of Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... Morgan Stanley CEO Philip Purcell, under pressure to leave the company, traveled to Boston earlier this month to meet shareholders, including Fidelity Investments. Purcell, who was accompanied by new members of the investment bank's...

Spitzer Uses AIG Probe To Raise Campaign Money.(Eliot Spitzer)(American International Group)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... A Google link that would take anyone doing a search on American International Group, to a sponsored link to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's gubernatorial campaign was suddenly yanked last Wednesday following an inquiry by the New York...

GAM, Man Could Face Patent Dustup.
April 11, 2005... GAM, the global investment management firm with $38 billion in assets, could be in for a rocky ride and possible monetary damages if its new U.S.-based hedge fund restructuring initiative trips over hedge fund behemoth Man Investments' pending...

T. Rowe to Buy TD Waterhouse Index Funds: Discount Broker Exits Proprietary Fund Biz.
April 11, 2005... The mutual fund industry continues to shrink even as assets swell. Fund manager T. Rowe Price has set plans to acquire six index funds that will be merged into its existing fund lineup as discount broker TD Waterhouse hands over the reins...

Few CCOs Would Accept Post Again: Thin Budgets, Lack of Support Give Legal Eagles Pause.(chief compliance officers)
April 11, 2005... Less than half of the chief compliance officers hired in the past year would unconditionally accept the same jobs today, according to survey data provided exclusively for Money Management Executive. The survey, a joint venture by the...

Lord Abbett's Pennington to Guide MMI.(Mark Pennington appointed at Money Management Institute)(Brief Article)
April 11, 2005... Mark Pennington, a partner at Lord Abbett, succeeds Peter Muratore as chairman of the Money Management Institute. Pennington joined Lord Abbett's sales and marketing group as a regional sales manager in 1988. In 1996, he became sales...

Morningstar Warms Up To BoA's Columbia Funds.(Bank of America)
April 11, 2005... Influential mutual fund tracker Morningstar has upgraded its perspective on Bank of America's scandal-plagued Columbia Funds, which after a 2004 merger with FleetBoston now includes the equally troubled Nations Funds. On the heels of a...

Executive Moves.(Securities and Exchange Commission appointed Scott W. Friestad, Access Data Corp. appointed Daniel Cwenar, Goodwin Procter L.L.P. appointed Brian E. Pastuszenski)
April 11, 2005... Friestad Becomes SEC's Assoc. Enforcement Chief The Securities and Exchange Commission has promoted Scott W. Friestad to associate director of the division of enforcement. In his new post, Friestad will be a senior official assisting in...

SMA Exec Gives Industry the Straight Dope.(separately managed account)(Steve Gresham)
April 11, 2005... Steve Gresham doesn't mince words. True to form, the executive vice president and chief sales officer of the private client group at Phoenix Investment Partners offered a sobering view of the nation's retirement landscape and laid out the...

SEC, U.S. Attorney's Office Charge NYSE Specialists.(New York Stock Exchange )(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... The Securities and Exchange Commission has instituted administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against 20 former New York Stock Exchange specialists on charges of securities fraud and other improper trading practices. According to...

SEC Puts Bear Stearns Under the Microscope.(Ronald A. Suber and Russell L. Miron of Bear Stearns Companies Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating two executives at Bear Stearns for improper mutual fund trading. According to HedgeWorld.com, the investigation of Ronald A. Suber, senior managing director and manager of global...

CCOs Feeling Heat from Examiners: Fielding Inquiries a Sizable Burden.
April 18, 2005... WASHINGTON - The days of the SEC's five-year examination cycle are over, as more stringent oversight has set forth a new regime under which mutual fund chief compliance officers must keep their heads on a swivel. In keeping with marching...

Fund Insiders See Social Security Quagmire: Argue Bush Privatization Plan Costly, Inefficient.
April 18, 2005... As lawmakers in Washington continue their high-profile debate over Social Security privatization, mutual fund industry insiders are quietly conducting their own deliberations on the issue. Some experts have said the fund industry could...

National Debate Spurs Product Push.(retirement investing)
April 18, 2005... As President Bush pushes the issue of retirement investing to the forefront with his plan to partly privatize Social Security, leading fund complexes are responding to the heightened awareness by rolling out a number of new products. The...

Fidelity Brokerage Arm Outmuscles Schwab, Merrill.
April 18, 2005... Borrowing a strategy straight from the playbook of its longtime chairman, Edward "Ned" Johnson III, Fidelity Investments has quietly built one of the industry's biggest brokerage houses. Led by Wall Street veteran Ellyn McColgan, who was...

Retiring Boomers Represent Next Big Windfall for Funds.(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... Fidelity Investments, already top dog among U.S. mutual fund complexes in the retirement field, is positioning itself to get an even bigger chunk of the market. By recently launching new investment services like the Fidelity Retirement...

Cutler Departs SEC; Joins Private Sector.(Stephen Cutler)
April 18, 2005... Stephen Cutler, Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, has announced that he intends to leave the Commission in about a month to return to the private sector. Cutler, 43, was named Enforcement...

Investors Sue A.G. Edwards Cry Kickbacks Drove Sales.(A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... A.G. Edwards & Sons took millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to promote some mutual funds, a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of investors alleges. The lawsuit, filed last week in St. Louis County Circuit Court, claims that the...

Funds and Performance Fees Don't Mesh.(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... The mutual fund industry might be appeasing investors by cutting management fees, but it's yet to embrace the performance-based fees its loosely regulated counterpart, the hedge fund industry, has used to its advantage. Charging...

Janus Adds Consultant Beefs Up Advisory Presence.(Carolyn Patton appointed at Janus Capital Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... Former Morgan Stanley manager Carolyn Patton has joined Janus Capital Group, to serve as director of global consultant relations, providing further proof that the Denver-based fund manager is serious about beefing up its advisory presence. ...

NSCC Adds Breakpoint Transparency, Info Exchange.(National Securities Clearing Corporation )
April 18, 2005... It's Spring and mutual fund breakpoint initiatives are in full bloom at National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) of New York, a subsidiary of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. NSCC last week announced it had added a...

Wachovia Enters Clearing, a Shrinking Field.(Wachovia Corp)
April 18, 2005... Wachovia Corp.'s corporate and institutional trust division started an institutional clearing services unit Wednesday, but industry analysts questioned whether the Charlotte, N.C. banking company would be able to compete in a business where...

Late Trading Cases Return; Fiserv Hit With $15M Fine No End' Yet in Sight.(Fiserv Securities )
April 25, 2005... Reverberations from the mutual fund scandal continue, as the Securities and Exchange Commission last Thursday announced yet more market-timing and late-trading charges. "We are continuing to bring cases for late trading and improper market...

BISYS in Hot Seat Over Extra Payments.
April 25, 2005... The BISYS Group of New York revealed a few more sketchy details last week about the continuing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation it is embroiled in over fees it paid for distribution, marketing and certain other expenses on...

NASD Breaks With SEC on Disclosure Regs: Differences Exist on Soft Dollars, Disclosure Methods.(National Association of Securities Dealers)
April 25, 2005... NASD EVP Elisse B. Walter has a few words for mutual fund industry professionals who believe that the current regulatory atmosphere will soon pass and the good old days of lessened scrutiny will return. "Such thinking, if it does exist, is...

Fidelity to Launch Unified Account.
April 25, 2005... Fidelity Investments' National Financial Unit plans to offer a unified managed account (UMA) this fall to its correspondent broker/dealers, sister publication Securities Industry News reports. The move comes at a time when financial advisers...

Amex Tries to Block New Hampshire Regulators.(American Express )(Brief Article)
April 25, 2005... American Express Financial Advisors has filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire asserting that federal law preempts that state's securities regulators from pressing fraud charges against its brokers, The Wall Street Journal reported...

State Street Earns $226M.(Brief Article)
April 25, 2005... State Street Corp.'s first-quarter earnings rose 4%, helped by an increase in new customers, beating analysts' expectations of lower earnings due to high costs, volatile markets and climbing interest rates. In the second quarter, State...

Executive Moves.
April 25, 2005... McMahon Chosen to Lead AXA Strategic Initiatives Andrew McMahon, has been named to lead a new strategic initiatives group of AXA Financial. In his new position, McMahon will devise and implement specific strategies for both retail and...

Narrow Returns Put Brakes On Popular Contingent Fees.(Brief Article)
April 25, 2005... As the debate whether mutual funds should charge performance-based fees continues, Don Cassidy, a senior research analyst at Lipper, New York, says the main reason such fees have not caught on is that more funds underperform than overperform...