Delaware Group sets its sights on boosting sales via banks.

Delaware Group, a Philadelphia-based mutual fund company, has designs on the bank market.

The company has named James "Lee" Cook to the new position of senior vice president and national sales manager for retail distribution.

The Delaware Group also named Joanne A. Mettenheimer to the new position of national accounts manager for banks.

Ms. Mettenheimer heads a task force that is developing proposals to transform Delaware Group from a. "limited" bank supplier to a larger force, Mr. Cook said.

Stint at Holden Group

"We see the bank distribution channel as the most exciting and rapidly growing in the industry," Mr. Cook said.

Mr. Cook is not new to the bank market. Before joining Delaware Group in 1986, he was regional marketing director at the Holden Group, a Los Angeles supplier of mutual funds and annuities to banks.

Ms. Mettenheimer has also been with Delaware Group since 1986, most recently working as assistant vice president and national accounts coordinator.

Delaware Group, which offers 17 mutual fund portfolios, has $26 billion in mutual fund and institutional assets under management.

ABA Video Spells Out Pension Plan Pitfalls

The American Bankers Association has video advice to keep employee benefit plan administrators on the straight and narrow.

The trade group's "Prohibited Transactions Video Training Kit" identifies actions that are forbidden by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

Erisa, which governs most private pension and benefit plans, sets guidelines for managing pension funds.

Extra Protection

The ABA video kit is designed to help bank trust departments recognize prohibited transactions that customers might propose.

It also offers guidance for trust officers to protect the bank and its customer relationships.

The kit, which costs $195 for ABA members and $300 for nonmembers, was created in response to requests from bankers, the ABA said.

Natwest Private Bank Announces Arts Panel

Coutts & Co. International Private Banking, a unit of National Westminster Bank, has announced the roster for the art advisory committee that will make decisions on its 1994 art awards next spring.

The bank will grant two cash awards: one to an artist who has made significant contributions to his field, and another to a project of the artist's choosing.

The new panel will include Nicholas Serota, director of London's Tate Gallery; Professor Kaspar Konig, head of the State Academy of Fine Arts in Frankfurt; Gary Garrels, senior curator of Minneapolis' Walker Art Center; and Hans-Ulrich Bodenmann, president of the Joseph Beuys Foundation.

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