Alternative investments

ProShares has launched four new exchange-traded funds that seek to provide 200% of the daily return of their respective indexes.

The Insured Retirement Institute on Thursday sent a “broad, comprehensive” response to the request for information on lifetime income that the U.S. Departments of Treasury and Labor recently issued.

WASHINGTON—Although some of the “most profound” proposals in regulatory reform made during the wake of the economic collapse are now not likely to happen, Richard Ketchum, chairman and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Thursday that the financial services industry still has a responsibility to act aggressively at detecting fraud before it’s cleaning up the mess at the end.

WASHINGTON — Republicans, as promised, banded together to block Senate debate on financial regulatory reform legislation Monday, picking up opposition from one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Armed with its first full period of earnings since buying Barclays Global Investors, BlackRock announced its profits quintupled in the first quarter.

Although financial advisers expect 2010 to be a great year, wirehouses are still feeling the turbulence, and concerns about breakaway brokers, although waning, remain, according to Aite Group.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Thursday it has reached settlements with units of HSBC and U.S. Bancorp related to the sale of auction-rate securities that became illiquid when auctions froze in February 2008.

The civil suit filed against Goldman Sachs by the Securities & Exchange Commission alleging securities fraud could strengthen the argument to establish a universal fiduciary standard, according to legal experts.

Between women living longer and financial crisis, they are concerned more than ever about not having enough money to last throughout their lifetimes. As a result, more women are buying income annuities to ensure they have sufficient retirement income.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Agriculture Committee has voted 13 to 8, mostly along party lines, to approve a bill to regulate over-the-counter derivatives. The bill would impose a fiduciary duty on dealers who pitch, advise or enter into swaps with localities, endowment funds, or pension funds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) actions against Goldman Sachs have sent credit default swap spreads spiraling wider not only for Goldman, but for the entire banking sector, according to Fitch Solutions.

Former President Bill Clinton now says he had an inadvertent role in the credit crisis and the SEC’s civil fraud case against Goldman Sachs by signing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, exempting the $58 trillion credit default swap industry from meaningful regulation.

Bernie Madoff's legacy is still influencing the regulatory community. Fraud is as much a part of Wall Street's history as the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange, but the Securities and Exchange Commission's recent amendments to its custody rule are intended to make life trickier for any future Madoff.

Despite increasing optimism about the economy, affluent investors remain concerned about retirement savings and the rising costs of healthcare.

Charles Schwab has agreed to settle a federal class-action lawsuit related to its YieldPlus Fund for $200 million, far less than the $800 million plaintiffs had sought.

WASHINGTON — Jafor Iqbal wonders if advisers are from Mars and retirees are from Venus.

WASHINGTON — The political pressure to enact financial reform intensified Friday as the government accused Goldman Sachs Group of defrauding investors and the Senate concluded two days of hearings highlighting the allegedly lax supervision that preceded the largest bank failure in the country's history.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday proposed tracking large blocks of trades by mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity firms and other large institutional investors. The SEC defines a large trader as those that trade $20 million or more in securities in a day, or 20 million shares or $200 million during any calendar month.

As sentiment among wealth managers shifts, more capital has become available and companies right-size, banks, trust companies, wealth managers, and bank brokerages that are in a strong position to expand into a new market and acquire new units, will do so. But it is also the moment when companies without the capital—and stability—will get left behind.

Boosted by its investment banking and wealth management units, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported stronger than expected first-quarter results. The New York-based company posted first-quarter earnings today of $3.33 billion, or 74 cents a share, a 55% increase from the year-ago period. JPMorgan Chase’s overall revenue rose 5% to $28.17 billion.