At the Bell

Banks’ fund sales rose 8% last year

Bank mutual fund sales amounted to an estimated $34.5 billion in 2002, up 8% from the previous year’s sales of $32 billion, according to a survey by bank consultant Kenneth Kehrer.

Sales are still down from the peak years of the bull market, when banks sold more than $40 billion in mutual funds for four straight years. In 2002, banks fared better than other mutual fund sales channels, notes Mr. Kehrer, who runs an eponymous firm in Princeton, N.J.

FleetBoston execs nix 2002 bonuses

FleetBoston Financial Corp.’s top executives will forgo their 2002 bonuses due to the company’s dismal performance last year.

CEO Chad Gifford, president Eugene McQuade and chief administrative officer Jay Sarles will receive no bonuses, the company said in a statement.

Fleet has also enacted stock ownership guidelines under which all executive officers must hold at least 75% of common stock granted to them in 2002 and after, for as long as they work for Fleet.

Enron role to cost Merrill $80 million

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. agreed to pay $80 million to resolve an investigation the Securities and Exchange Commission has been conducting into two deals the New York company had done in 1999 with Enron Corp.

At issue are a $7 million deal between Enron and Merrill related to power-generating barges in Nigeria, and energy trades involving Enron and Merrill’s energy-trading unit, which it has since sold.

Merrill didn’t admit or deny any wrongdoing.

Janus Mercury’s manager resigns

Warren Lammert, a top stock picker at Janus Capital Corp. of Denver, resigned, the company said Friday.

Lammert’s Janus Mercury Fund has plunged during the past three years after soaring 96% in 1999. Janus stock picker David Corkins will replace Mr. Lammert.

J.P. Morgan fined for profit sharing

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in New York agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges brought against its San Francisco-based JPMorgan H&Q unit.

NASD said the investment bank had engaged in illegal profit-sharing with its institutional clients during the dot-com boom.

H&Q customers had paid inflated commissions – sometimes as high as $1.25 a share when the going rate was typically 6 cents – after receiving shares of hot initial public offerings, the agency said.

Deutsche exiting settlements biz

Deutsche Bank AG is pulling out of a joint venture to outsource trade settlements from other investment banks, trading houses and brokerages.

The German company said in a press release that it plans to sell its 50% stake in SOCX LLC to its remaining partner in the venture, New York-based technology house Wall Street Systems Inc.

NASD forms fees task force

NASD has formed a 22-member task force to recommend ways for mutual fund and brokerage companies to ensure investors aren’t overcharged when they buy funds.

Mary Schapiro, president of NASD Regulatory Policy and Oversight in Washington, will be chairman of the task force.

Hedge fund firm in new fed probe

Federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury to investigate Beacon Hill Asset Management LLC, one of the biggest hedge fund managers in the mortgage bond market.

The Department of Justice criminal probe follows a civil action brought last fall by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

At the time, Summit Hill, N.J.-based Beacon Hill had been charged with exaggerating the net asset values of its Bristol and Safe Harbor funds.