Fifth Third Offering A Second Unit Trust
Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati began selling shares in its second proprietary unit investment trust Friday.The Strategic Communications and Technology Trust, Series 2, invests in a fixed basket of 42 stocks from software, telecommunications, hardware, networking, semiconductor, and fiber optics companies. The initial unit price is $10 and the investment will mature on Feb. 15, 2002.
The unit trust will try to capitalize on the recent performance of technology stocks by investing in the sectors driving those returns, said Tom Williams, a vice president of Fifth Third Securities Inc.
"We're not looking at dot-coms and e-commerce companies that have gotten a lot of play," Mr. Williams said. Instead, the unit trust will follow the builders of those companies' infrastructures, he said.
- Amy L. Anderson
SEC Says It May Relax Disclosure Proposals
WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering scaling back some of its proposals on disclosures for mutual fund directors, an SEC official said at a conference here last week.Proposals introduced by the commission in October would require directors and their "immediate family members" to disclose conflicts of interest in various documents. But the definition of "immediate family member" is likely to be trimmed, Susan Nash, the SEC's senior associate director of disclosure rulemaking, said at the Mutual Fund Directors Education Council Conference.
Currently, the term is defined as a spouse, parent, child, sibling, mother- or father-in- law, son- or daughter-in-law, brother- or sister-in-law. It also includes step and adoptive relationships.
Ms. Nash said the SEC also may change its proposal concerning directors' disclosures of their job and investment history. Instead of providing a five-year history, as the SEC proposed in October, directors would only have to go back two years. And it will consider "very carefully" whether directors should have to disclose precise amounts of their holdings or whether a range would suffice, she said.
Paul F. Roye, director of the SEC's investment management division, said the final version could come later this year.
- Cheryl Winokur
Citi Sets Launch Date For a Trio of Funds
Citigroup Inc. said it plans a March 1 launch for three funds to be sold by its Salomon Smith Barney Inc. brokers.The funds will invest in the financial services, technology, and science industries. "We believe people want exposure to these sectors of the market," a Citigroup spokesman said.
Citigroup's SSB Citi Asset Management arm had $139.3 billion of mutual funds on Dec. 31, according to Lipper Inc. of Summit, N.J.
- Karen Talley
Allianz Life Rolls Out 1st Annuity in Series
Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America has introduced a multimanager variable annuity.The product, USAllianz Alterity, is the first in a series of multimanager annuities Allianz Life is to introduce. It offers 37 investment options from 10 investment managers, death and income benefits, and fixed and variable payout options.
It will be sold through financial planners, broker-dealers, and banks. Allianz Life, a Minneapolis-based subsidiary of Allianz of America, sells its Valuemark variable annuities and life insurance products through broker-dealers, including those affiliated with banks.
