3 Bankers Trust Funds Get Top Rating from Morningstar

Three of Bankers Trust New York Corp.'s mutual funds have received top honors from the Morningstar fund rating agency - including a high-profile fund that lost its star investment manager earlier this year.

The BT Investment Small Cap Fund, BT Investment International Equity Fund, and BT Institutional Equity 500 Index Fund were among only 49 bank funds to receive Morningstar's highest grade - a five-star rating - for the three-year period ended Oct. 31, 1996. Chicago-based Morningstar rates 1,773 bank managed funds based on their performance, adjusted for risk.

Mary Lisanti, who managed the small-cap fund for more than two years, left Bankers Trust for Strong Capital Management last August. The fund is now co-managed by Tim Woods and Mary Dugan.

BT Investment International Equity Fund is run like a bank fund, with lots of systems and analysis behind it, said Pat Regnier, the Morningstar analyst who rated the fund. "There is nothing there that strikes you as a silly thing to do with a mutual fund," he said. "That is typical of a bank fund."

Frank Minard, chairman of Bankers Trust's global investment management group in New York, said the bank has been touting the funds' high grades in newspaper advertisements and with direct marketing to Bankers Trust 401(k) customers.

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