The Senate confirmed the nomination of Harvey Pitt as Chairmen of the SEC yesterday. The securities lawyer has represented the NYSE, major brokerages and accounting firms, and notorious insider trader Ivan Boesky while in private practice. Pitt served a brief stint as General Counsel for the SEC between 1975 and 1978. He favors less regulation and believes that many of the SEC’s laws are outdated.



Donald Marron is stepping down from his post as chairman of UBS PaineWebber, the Wall Street Journal reports. His resignation is significant in that Marron was responsible for the sale of Paine Webber to UBS AG last year. Joe Grano, president and CEO of UBS PaineWebber, will simply now serve as chairman of the firm.



Participants in Manulife Financial's 401(k) plans will now be able to download their transaction activity information from any period after June of 2000 to Intuit's Quicken or Microsoft's Money software.



Sales at Boston-based Putnam have sunk while those at Beantown rival MFS have treaded water, despite similar investment performance at the two firms over the past two years. Hometown paper the Boston Globe uses this fact as evidence that perception is everything in a story today. Some very widely distributed funds at Putnam have basically bombed while the carnage at MFS was far less concentrated. The very highly concentrated and severe performance drops in some Putnam funds have blinded many investors in regard to all Putnam funds. In essence, the damage at Putnam is simply more visible, the paper contends. Other factors such as a size handicap, (Putnam requires tremendous inflows compared to the smaller MFS) put Putnam at a disadvantage.



The European Union has issued a proposal for a new directive on tax savings that would replace its 1998 proposal, reports the Investment Company Institute. In yet another effort to garner more taxes, this new proposal is significant in that interest income derived from securities from countries outside the EU (ie. the United States) is now taxable as long the income is distributed by an EU based paying agent. Hence, U.S. funds will no longer serve as tax-free vehicles for Europeans.



Richard Howard, portfolio manager for T. Rowe Price’s $1.38 billion Capital Appreciation Fund, is leaving T. Rowe to don his Bermuda shorts at White Mountains Insurance Group’s investment division, reports Investors News Services. Stephen Boesel, a managing director of T. Rowe, will take over Howard’s reigns at the Capital Appreciation Fund. Michael Keohane and Tara Yeager, managers for Alliance Capital’s $817 million Alliance Fund are leaving the firm, according to Investors News Service. John Blundin and Alan Levi will now manage the fund.  

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