Short Takes: Huntington Adding Funds to Retail Menu

Huntington Bancshares said it will offer retail customers two mutual funds once sold exclusively to trust clients. The funds are: Monitor Income Equity Fund and Monitor Short & Intermediate Fixed Income Securities.

The company's entire family of nine Monitor Funds is now available to retail investors, with the other seven being offered since 1991. The Monitor family manages $1.8 billion of assets.

Initially, Huntington offered retail customers a short list of funds, such as its growth equity fund and an Ohio tax-free bond fund.

The income equity fund, which invests in companies that pay high dividends, began trading in 1989 and was withheld from the retail customers until it got firmly established, said James M. Buskirk, chief investment officer of Huntington Trust.

"Now we can point to a seven-and-a-half-year track record. It's really nice to show people the rising dividends of the fund," he said.

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