Keystone hires a veteran banker to call the shots on a sales push.

Keystone Distributors Inc. is boosting its mutual fund sales through banks - and its secret weapon is a veteran banker.

The Boston-based mutual fund company recently recruited Peter M. Delehanty from Washington Mutual Savings Bank to head its sales efforts.

Mr. Delehanty worked at the Seattle-based savings bank for six and a half years, most recently as senior vice president and marketing director for the bank's brokerage affiliate.

At Washington Mutual, he handled marketing for the bank's eight-member fund family, the Composite Funds, which have $1.15 billion of assets under management.

|A Novel Approach'

In an interview, Mr. Delehanty said his understanding of both bankers and bank sales will be assets for Keystone. In his new post, he oversees sales of the company's mutual funds through banks and thrifts.

"Keystone took a novel approach and decided to build a program from the banks' perspective, not from Keystone's perspective," Mr. Delehanty said.

Within the next two years, Mr. Delehanty hopes to boost sales through the bank channel to 20% of the company's total volume.

That would be a significant jump from last year, when just 5% of Keystone's $1.8 billion in total sales were channeled through banks, according to estimates by the company.

Knowledge of the Business

"When we made the strategic decision to enter the banking channel, our sales through banks were not a major part of our business," said company president Stephen J. Arpante.

"We needed someone who understands banking as a business," Mr. Arpante said. "We talked to bankers, brokers, and mutual fund industry people and we kept coming back to Peter."

Among candidates considered, Mr. Delehanty's record of success in both managing and training people made him stand out, Mr. Arpante said.

Major Competition

The company will face stiff competition in its own backyard, where major players in the mutual funds business, such as Fidelity Investments, Putnam Financial Services, Massachusetts Financial Services, and Colonial Mutual Funds, rule the bank roost.

"In order to be a participant in the marketplace, you have to have a value added," Mr. Delehanty said. "Hopefully, I can provide that and help banks integrate mutual funds into their mainstay products."

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