News Digest for August 23, 2006

There are 9 items today … Institutional investors to pile into ETFs, study | Firms accelerating stock-option availability | Some Hedge Funds to Stay Registered | Investor Confidence Slightly Lower in August | Lifting the veil of secrecy on corporate political donations | Are CEOs Worthy Of Their Pay? | Dutch IR society ups the pace | University Develops Online Opinion Thermometer | Microsoft campaign goes after ‘cybersquatters’

Institutional investors to pile into ETFs, study
A report out earlier this week from Morgan Stanley predicts the amount of money invested in ETF funds will top $2 trillion in 2011, up from $487.11 billion in June 2006.

Firms accelerating stock-option availability
Unlike option backdating, which might be illegal in certain circumstances, this practice — known as accelerated vesting — had the blessing of accounting and securities regulators. But that doesn’t make it any less “despicable,” says Ciesielski.

Some Hedge Funds to Stay Registered
She said a big chunk of hedge funds are federally registered because their investors insist on it, and those hedge-fund managers think deregistering now would send the wrong message to those investors.

Investor Confidence Slightly Lower in August
The State Street Investor Confidence Index® for August 2006 decreased very slightly, by 0.2 points, to 83.1 from July’s revised reading of 83.3. The confidence of North American institutional investors fell from 98.1 to 95.2. The confidence of Asian investors increased to 86.5 from 81.1, and the confidence of European investors increased to 88.4 from 85.4.

Lifting the veil of secrecy on corporate political donations
Calls for greater transparency on political donations made by companies - traditionally the preserve ofcorporate activists and political campaigners - are now coming from the mainstream of the financial world.

Are CEOs Worthy Of Their Pay?
Good governance still plays some part in determining pay—the researchers say that CEOs can garner 10 to 20 percent more by going to a firm with a weak board.

Dutch IR society ups the pace
The Dutch IR society, NEVIR, has appointed Tom de Swaan, former CFO of ABM Amro, as the chairman of its new advisory council. The move comes as the organization seeks to play a greater role in debates about new regulations and laws.

University Develops Online Opinion Thermometer
Subrahmanian predicts that companies will want to use the technology to track the opinions of customers and critics on websites and blogs.

Microsoft campaign goes after ‘cybersquatters’
Web users who’ve had the frustrating experience of mistyping a common or popular Web-site URL and inadvertently landing on a page full of pay-per-click ads may soon have relief due to a new campaign by Microsoft Corp.

Related posts:

1. SEC’s new guidance for websites and blogs posted
2. At Google Finance, Google’s profit miss not news
3. SEC adds free news feeds to EDGAR
4. Earnings releases — the Warren Buffett way
5. Firms blame Broadridge, SEC for e-proxy snafus

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