New York Daily News – The hedge fund industry has a public relations problem these days and you have to be a millionaire to invest in one anyway, but there’s a new fund for more modest investors that can offer similar benefits.

The IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker Exchange-Traded Fund doesn’t actually invest in hedge funds, but attempts to replicate their performance.

The fund does this by holding other ETFs that own various asset classes, including stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities.

Adam Patti, CEO of IndexIQ, the company behind the new fund, said it even enjoys some advantages over hedge funds, including the ability to sell on a moment’s notice. Hedge funds typically offer limited times to sell.

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Tags: asset-classes, attempts, ceo, commodities, currencies, etfs, exchange traded fund, indexiq, investors, iq, limited times, millionaire, new york daily news, public relations problem, stocks bonds, york daily news

Reuters – The government is considering injecting as much as 10 billion pounds into Northern Rock to use the nationalised bank to ramp up mortgage lending, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The Treasury has yet to make a final decision on the plan, which may also see the bank hiring new staff, the newspaper reported in its Friday edition.

Spokesmen for the Treasury and Northern Rock, which is due to unveil a new business plan in the next few weeks, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Northern Rock became the first British casualty of the credit crunch in September 2007 when the bank, heavily dependent on wholesale markets for its funding, revealed that it had been forced to seek emergency support from the Bank of England.

The bank was nationalised in early 2008 after attempts to find a private sector buyer fell through.

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Tags: attempts, bank-of-england, business plan, casualty, credit crunch, daily-telegraph, emergency support, final decision, mortgage lending, nationalised bank, new-business, private sector, reuters, spokesmen, treasury, wholesale, wholesale markets