FleetBoston no longer will be seen shouting "give me liberty" in the halls. The tagline from the bank's ad campaign will likely be dropped as it rebrands it fund offerings with the Columbia name in the first half of 2003. The rebranding is not a surprise, as FleetBoston merged all of the fund units it acquired through its purchase of Liberty's asset management unit under the Columbia operating unit umbrella last year.

All together, Fleet now operates 46 mutual funds under the Liberty, Galaxy, Stein Roe & Farnham, Crabbe Huson, Liberty Wanger, Newport Pacific, Columbia and Colonial brands. Columbia claims $140 billion in assets under management.

Even prior to bank's purchase of Liberty, Liberty fund officials had been trying to streamline the sales and operations underpinning the wide variety of brands at the firm. To accomplish those efforts become more compelling after Fleet's acquisition of the unit.

Fleet's own Galaxy funds were the odd-brand as the only no-load offering among the brands. That has been changed as Galaxy funds now carry similar sales loads as other Columbia Funds.

Separately, the firm also revealed that it has renewed its agreements with PFPC to provide fund accounting and transfer agency services to the Galaxy Funds. The renewed contract is set to expire in five years and covers approximately $13 billion in Fleet Common Trust Funds and $21 billion in Galaxy's money market funds.

"The Galaxy Fund complex has enjoyed a long relationship with PFPC, which has provided outstanding services since 1995," said Joseph Palombo, chief operating officer for Columbia Management Group. "We made the decision to retain PFPC through 2007 because of its proven ability to provide the widest range of services - from custody to fund accounting and transfer agency services - as well as its strong shared commitment to delivering a superior experience to our investors."  

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