S&P; Begins Mutual Fund Evaluations

Standard & Poor’s Corp. on Monday launched a mutual fund evaluation service, conferring the rating of “select” on 24 large-capitalization growth funds.

S&P; said the evaluations will combine analysis of a fund’s past performance with analysis of its management.

The firm said that the evaluation of large cap growth funds started with a group of 425 funds and after the list was winnowed down to 100 funds by applying “quantitative” screens, S&P; analysts conducted interviews with fund managers.

S&P;’s service could be a competitor for Morningstar Inc., the premier fund-rating service.