Fund redemptions at banks outpace rate at brokerages.

Bank customers have been cashing in mutual fund shares at a slightly higher rate than brokerage clients, but fund executives say the trend is not worrisome.

At Dreyfus Corp., redemption rates on mutual funds sold through banks are running at an annualized rate of around 10%, a few notches higher than the 8% rate for funds sold through brokerage firms, according to Elie Genadry, president of the company's institutional services division.

James F. Getz, president of the broker-dealer division at Federated Securities Corp., Pittsburgh, said his company has also seen somewhat more in redemptions at banks, particularly in the fixed-income funds that bank customers favor.

As newcomers to fund sales, banks have been the subject of speculation that they would have trouble hanging on to fund customers once interest rates began to climb. That's because rising interest rates tend to depress the value of fixed-income funds.

The two fund executives, in presentations at an Investment Company Institute convention, suggested that such concerns have been overblown. The outflows have been anything but "mammoth," Mr. Getz said.

Most of the liquidations are from funds with front-end loads, Mr. Genadry said.

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