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Putnam Investments, the fifth biggest mutual fund in the US, has been accused of improper trading by federal and Massachusetts regulators.

The charges were brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Massachusetts securities regulators.

The SEC has also brought charges against two former Putnam managers.

In a statement, Putnam said it believed it had not acted fraudulently, and that it was working with regulators to “resolve these issues in an appropriate and expeditious manner”.

The charges relate to a practice called market timing, which involves profiting from short term trading in mutual fund shares, and can damage the value of the fund for long term investors.

Charges

The SEC charged former Putnam fund managers Justin Scott and Omid Kamshad with securities fraud.

We believe that, contrary to the allegations in the complaints, Putnam did not act fraudulently Putnam statement

“The complaint alleges that Scott and Kamshad, for their own personal accounts, engaged in excessive short-term trading
of Putnam mutual funds for which they were portfolio managers,” the SEC said.

The SEC has also brought an administrative order against Putnam.

It said its order “alleges that Putnam engaged in securities fraud by failing to disclose to the funds or to the fund boards the potentially self-dealing transactions in fund shares by Scott, Kamshad and other employees.”

The Massachusetts complaint said: “Despite prospectus disclosures that indicated market
timing would not be tolerated, from at least January 2000 to September 2003 plan participants were permitted to market-time
Putnam International and other mutual funds.”

Vigilance

Stephen Cutler, director of the SEC Division of Enforcement, said: “Self dealing is antithetical to the responsibilities investment advisers and their employees owe to mutual fund investors.

“We will continue to be… vigilant in pursuing enforcement actions against securities professionals who put their own interests ahead of the interests of investors they work for.”

Last week, Putnam announced it had dismissed four fund managers for improper trading.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Putnam said it regretted that the regulators had felt compelled to press charges.

“Our internal surveillance systems and controls successfully identified most of the market timing activities,” said Putnam, which is owned by insurer Marsh & McLennan.

“Our systems were not 100% effective and we deeply regret that any incidence of market timing took place.

“However, we believe that, contrary to the allegations in the complaints, Putnam did not act fraudulently.

“We want to state explicitly that Putnam did not receive any financial benefit.

“In addition, Putnam did not engage in any financial arrangement to allow market timing with any client or participant.”

Restoring losses

The firm noted that the individuals named in the SEC and Massachusetts complaints were no longer managing money.

“While we believe we have identified all investment professionals who traded in their own funds, we continue to review all trading activity to determine if there was additional market timing activity,” the firm said.

“Putnam will restore any losses deemed to be the result of employee trading activity.”

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Read more on News - ‘No case’ over theatre party claims
An internal inquiry into activities at a party held at Durham’s Gala Theatre has found “no evidence” of drug use that would lead to criminal charges.

Durham City Council began an investigation into the alleged “inappropriate use” of the recently opened 14m theatre after reports of a Halloween Party at the venue.

The allegations came to light after it emerged an ambulance was called to the theatre shortly after midnight, when a guest was taken ill.

Durham Police were called to investigate but they have advised the council there is no case to answer.

The inquiry has also established that permission had been given for the party.

Financial loss

What remains to be resolved is whether some guests stayed at the theatre overnight, in breach of insurance regulations.

The loss-making Gala Theatre in Durham is already the subject of a vigorous financial review, after being taken into the hands of city councillors.

The Gala opened in January 2002 as the largest provincial venue in the UK in a decade.

The theatre, which also boasts a cinema, ran into difficulty within months when its original managers, the Entertainment Team, went into liquidation.

In its first year, the site lost 700,000 and Durham City Council says it has been budgeted to lose a further 400,000.

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About 450 jobs are being axed at Norwich Union in York, taking the city’s job losses over the past year to more than 1,000.

Aviva, which owns Norwich Union, said it planned to cut more than 4,000 jobs across the country by 2008.

City of York Council said the losses were “a bitter blow” and it would do all it could to support those affected.

In the past year, York has suffered job cuts by chocolate makers Terry’s and Nestle and more recently British Sugar.

Aviva said that half of the job losses were expected to be made through compulsory redundancies.

The York centre deals with Norwich Union’s marketing, strategy, IT and finance and employs 3,485 staff.

Aviva said the changes were necessary as consumers changed the way they bought insurance.

It is a bitter blow when a major employer announces such large job losses, particularly when so many are in York Bill Woolley, City of York Council’s director of strategy

But workers’ union Amicus described the cuts as “absolutely brutal”.

“They are treating their staff with contempt and clearly have more regard for their shareholder profits than their UK workforce.”

In addition to the Norwich Union job losses, Aviva also plans to close its York office of the BSM driving school by December 2007 with the loss of four jobs.

Strong economy

The council’s director of city strategy, Bill Woolley, said he was shocked and surprised by news of the city’s cuts.

“It is a bitter blow when a major employer announces such large job losses, particularly when so many are in York,” he said.

He said the council had spoken to regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, Business Link, The Learning and Skills Council, Job Centre Plus and York College to see how the organisations could work together to help those who have been made redundant.

“We will be setting up an urgent meeting of all the relevant partners to see how we can maximise our joint efforts,” he added.

“However, despite this news, York’s economy remains strong. The task now is to ensure that all those who are affected by the Norwich Union announcement can benefit from its strength.”

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Swiss insurance firm Zurich Financial Services is to sell up its consumer operations in France in favour of concentrating on insuring businesses.

The group embarked on a massive expansion programme in the late 1990s which cost it dearly, leading to a $3.4bn loss in 2002 and more than 4,000 job cuts.

Now it is trying to pull back to what it sees as core operations, having returned to the black for the first half of 2003 to the tune of $601m.

As a result, its Eagle Star business in France, together with the rest of its life insurance business and all its non-life business aside from the corporate side, are being sold to Italian insurance group Generali.

The price is remaining confidential by agreement between the two firms, Zurich said.

The move in France follows a similar sale earlier this year in the Netherlands.

Original article News - Zurich gets out of France
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Huge losses at General Electric’s former insurance business have hurt profits at the US industrial giant.

The firm saw its earnings fall 3% to $16.3bn (9.2bn) in 2005, due mainly to losses at its insurance businesses, most of which have since been sold.

In the final quarter, GE incurred $2.7bn of losses from its insurance arm, dragging total profits down 46%.

But GE said the fundamentals of its business remained strong and that the outlook for 2006 remained positive.

Excluding the losses and measuring only its continuing businesses, the company’s profits rose slightly to $5.77bn.

Sales in the quarter, however, fell slightly short of expectations at $40.7bn.

Momentum

GE is best known for manufacturing jet engines but owns a diverse range of businesses including the NBC Universal film studio.

The current economic environment remains positive Jeff Immelt, GE chief executive

Excluding losses from discontinued operations, GE generated record profits of $18.3bn in 2005, up 12% on the previous year.

Sales from retained business rose 11% to $149.7bn.

GE said 2005 had been an “excellent year” for its business, with total orders up 10%.

“Looking into 2006, the current economic environment remains positive and is in line with our expectations,” said chief executive Jeff Immelt.

“We enter 2006 with solid momentum and a strong outlook.”

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