Just how out of favor is the fund industry on the Street? This month, Institutional Investor Magazine takes the wrap off its new "Power 75" in its January edition and confirms that fund titans are not what they once were. In fact, only two make the list: Ned Johnson (no. 26) and Bill Gross (no. 41).

So Fidelity and Pimco earn spots, but there is no American Funds/Capital Research, Vanguard, Black Rock, Alliance Capital or any other of the 550 or so firms that control some $12 trillion in financial assets. At the same time the list is chock-a-block full with names from China (four of the top ten) and other international sovereign wealth funds and institutions.

Writing of Fidelity: Ellyn McColgan's name -- and picture -- also surfaces in the issue closer to the front of the book. The magazine reports that the 53-year-old will be on a mission at Morgan Stanley to build a fund management brand to "rival Fidelity" when she starts her new job in April.

Also earning a mention on the people page is SSgA's Jim Phelan, who took over from William Hunt after State Street was sued for losses in its fixed income funds.

Meanwhile, the magazine also runs a piece on the challenges facing Keith Banks and Columbia Management by Julie Segal. She is a reporter long familiar with the mutual fund beat from her years at ii's Fund Action, but the article is not all glowing.

Columbia's big question, writes Segal, is whether Bank of America's asset management arm can "regain its lost momentum" in wake of the subprime crisis and its sale of Marsico Funds, which accounted for up to half of its bottom line.

Banks, for one, remains optimistic that the answer is "yes."

"Marsico is a loss, but Columbia is a very different company than it was when it formed the relationship with Tom [Marsico]. We have $700 billion under management, yet we're still a growth story," said Banks. 

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