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Companies Gear Up For XBRL Reporting

August 11, 2008 - The Securities and Exchange Commission could mandate the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in mutual fund risk return summaries by as early as the first quarter of next year, according to industry experts, putting many fund companies on the data-tagging fast track. XBRL US, the U.S. version of the international consortium, has joined forces with Andover, Mass.-based mutual fund data provider NewRiver to make sure public companies, mutual funds and credit rating agencies are ready in time.

SEC Prepares to Close the GAAP

August 4, 2008 - NEW YORK - A lot of people are wondering when the U.S. will adopt the same international standards for financial reporting that Europe and the rest of the world seem to be moving toward. The rule-based, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) have been around in the U.S. for years, but differ from the principle-based International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that the European Union adopted in 2005. Currently more than 100 countries have moved to incorporate or are allowing IFRS, according to the global tax and advisory service firm Ernst & Young, in a presentation last week.

Europe to Make UCITS Yet More Efficient

July 21, 2008 - The European Union proposed a new set of rules Thursday to make Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) even more efficient by eliminating additional regulatory hurdles. Most notably, the rules- which will replace 10 directives with just one and go into effect in 2011-will allow cross-border mergers of funds, making Europe's mutual fund industry more efficient. They will also permit master-feeder structures and eliminate much of the administrative paperwork currently required to market funds to other markets in the European Union of 27 member states. The revised regulations will also call for a two-page, plain English summary as opposed to the average 60-page prospectus.

Tax Warning to Hedge Funds Heading Overseas To Avoid Subprime Risks

July 14, 2008 - The ongoing credit crisis saga has taken a tremendous toll on hedge funds due to their exposure to structured mortgage-backed assets-and for those heading or parsing trades overseas to avoid U.S. taxes: Beware. The contracting demand for mortgage-backed securities-which had been dramatically overvalued by brokers who pushed more than 600 varieties of these assets to hedge fund managers through unregulated, highly leveraged repos-precipitated the tightening of unsecured term funding.

Equity Mutual Funds Slip 15 Basis Points in 2Q08

July 14, 2008 - Mutual fund investors held resilient in the second quarter of the year, 'shrugging off weakness in the labor and housing markets and even ignoring the rising cost of oil and gas,' announced Tom Roseen, senior research analyst for Lipper, during the firm's press conference last Tuesday on the quarter's results. 'We saw in the headlines that it was a very bad quarter, the worst quarter for the Dow since 1929, but I think you are going to see that that's not the case for mutual funds,' Roseen said. 'Certainly for a lot of the big, large-cap and value-oriented funds it was a real dour quarter and a horrible month in May, but if you take a grander look at things, the first two months of the quarter were really, really good.'

Cool, Calm & Reflective: How Flanagan Saved Invesco From Itself

July 7, 2008 - Back in 2005, the chances that Amvescap, now Invesco, would make a 360-degree turnaround seemed virtually impossible, but with a little bit of time and the addition of Martin Flanagan as chief executive officer, the unlikely actually occurred.

Samuel Israel III: The Great Hedge Fund Escape Artist

June 30, 2008 - 'I cheated my investors because I was afraid to admit my failure. I did not want the world to think I was not good enough and I did not want my family to see me as a failure.' Those are some of the choice, cowardly words from Samuel Israel III, the erstwhile Bayou Capital hedge fund manager who cheated investors out of $450 million, when begging the sentencing judge for leniency. Apparently, Israel believes he was justified in, and can earn sympathy for, ripping off his clients because he couldn't measure up to his prominent New Orleans family. His lawyer also pled on Israel's behalf, noting the swindler's pacemaker, back trouble and addiction to pain killers.

UCITS Next Great Hope for U.S. Firms in Europe

June 9, 2008 - NEW YORK - Days before the European Union celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Euro last week, Dechert LLP held a widely popular seminar here on the how-to's of Undertakings for Collective Investment Trusts, or UCITS, which have been growing at a rapid pace not only on the Continent, but also in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. UCITS essentially afford an investment firm a 'passport' to register and market a UCIT, an investment vehicle structured much like a mutual fund, throughout the EU.

'Plain Vanilla' Funds in Investors' Plain Sight

June 9, 2008 - NEW YORK - As the turbulent economy begins to calm down, investors will likely gravitate toward index-based, middle-of-the-road mutual funds, opening the door for opportunists to sweep up bargains, industry experts say. And the safer, the better. 'Investors are looking for plain vanilla' opportunities,' said Paul Disdier, director of municipal securities for The Dreyfus Corp., at the annual BNY Mellon Asset Management press briefing June 3 at the MetLife building in Manhattan.

Paulson's Funds Lead Wall Street Winners

April 21, 2008 - John Paulson, founder of the hedge fund Paulson & Company, made an unprecedented $3.7 billion last year by betting against subprime mortgages and the financial products that held them. Paulson took the top place in Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine's ranking of the 50 most highly paid hedge fund managers. George Soros ranked second with $2.9 billion and James Simons came in third place with $2.8 billion in earnings. The top 25 managers on the list earned an average of $892 million.

4.21.2008: Inflection Point

April 21, 2008 - A number of news events in the past week alone indicate without question the U.S. economy is at a dangerous inflection point, but so far, no one-no economist, analyst, fund manager, regulator, legislator, president or CEO-is willing to put together the pieces to talk about something other than snapshot first-quarter, year-over-year or historical trendline data that make a case for the return of the markets. Actually, it's what they are not saying that is most troubling. Namely, the snowballing layoffs and the incredibly wide disparity of wealth and opportunity in America-even for those with talent, experience and means.

Bottom Feeders' Could Save Financials: Thomson

April 21, 2008 - NEW YORK - The financial sector took a beating in the first quarter, but financial 'bottom feeders' will speed its recovery, possibly ahead of the rest of the market, experts said here at a gathering of researchers and data providers. 'The financial sector was down 60% for the first quarter,' said Mike Thompson, managing director of Thomson Research, a division of Thomson Financial. 'The numbers are pretty bad, but believe it or not, financials are going to recover before the rest of the market does.' Financial 'bottom feeders' will likely continue to make large cash infusions into the financial sector, as bargain prices will be too good to resist, Thompson said.

Week in Review

April 14, 2008 - Hedge Fund Managers Have Rough Month Hedge fund managers had a tough month in March, lagging equity and bond benchmarks but outperforming equity markets, according to firms that monitor their performance.

Executive Moves

April 14, 2008 - Former Fed Vice Chair Joins TIAA-CREF Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson will be the new chief executive of TIAA-CREF.

The Scandal That Just Won't Go Away

April 14, 2008 - While criticisms abound as to who, or which regulatory entity, or set of laws and oversight, is to blame for the credit crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission is quietly flexing new muscle of its own on the mutual fund trading scandal front. In what is being viewed as a landmark case in the continuing pursuit of mutual fund late traders a full 4-1/2 years after the fund scandal was first uncovered, the SEC is moving beyond the borders of scandal fatigue in the U.S.