Alternative investments

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) are working together to introduce 12 interoperable XML-based message formats to the alternative investment community.

Federal regulators are cracking down on the potential spread of false and misleading rumors that could potentially affect market conditions.

The deadline for entries to Money Management Executive’s Sixth Annual Fund Operations Awards has been extended through Thursday, July 31, so you still have plenty of time to enter.

Prudential Financial recently honored five plan sponsors that redesigned their defined contribution retirement programs, helping members to better attain their retirement goals.

NAVA has teamed with IBM to launch a tool establishing an automated standardized process that streamlines the sale of annuities.

Supporters of pension funds argued before Congress that the plans play a critical role in ensuring retirement security and stimulating the economy.

If elected, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama plans to increase the capital gains tax between five and 10 percentage points, from its current rate of 15%. The effect of Obama’s possible candidacy, along with his tax program, has already sent concern throughout the financial world, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Some financial planners are advising investors to take advantage of the current lower rates and to drop some mutual funds and stocks.

Prudential Financial recently announced an insurance program targeted at the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.

Wells Fargo & Co., while bruised by California's slumping housing market, increased revenue by capitalizing on recent acquisitions in its insurance business and growing demand in the agriculture sector to beat analysts' second-quarter earnings expectations.

Turning the collection of market data into a competitive business is a fatally flawed idea, said the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association last week in response to a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that seeks to do so.

The biggest mutual funds in the nation have lost more than an estimated $4 billion in the past week alone on their investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and related mortgage stocks, Reuters reports, based on analysts’ assessment of fund companies’ latest reports. In the past week, Fannie and Freddie declined 45.4% and 46.5%, respectively.

The small group of money mangers who possessed the ability to outperform the market has virtually disappeared, according to a new study.

Financial experts seem to be in agreement that we are now in a bear market, but will that bad news shake investors’ traditional buy-and-hold strategy with 401(k)s – particularly older investors?

Following the rash of home equity loans that Americans regretfully took out over the past few years on their first or second mortgages – essentially turning their homes into ATM machines, as many a critic has quipped – their 401(k)s are now in danger of becoming the next get-cash-quick scheme, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) are working together to introduce 12 interoperable XML-based message formats to the alternative investment community.

Before Dennis Ferro retires as chief executive officer at Evergreen Investments, Wachovia Corp.'s investment management arm, he says that he wants to expand its alternative investment capabilities and its international distribution.

The Asian Development Bank has launched a new environmentally based mutual fund.The Future Carbon Fund is tied to environmental initiatives from the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire at the end of 2012.

Mutual fund companies and other financial services firms continue to battle one another for wealth management talent even though companies are forced to pay hefty salaries that crimp profits.

For professionals on Wall Street, the June jobs number confirmed what many already knew: The financial services segment of the U.S. economy lost jobs last month. Some observers say the pace of jobs lost on Wall Street could exceed all other previous downturns faced by banks and brokerages since World War II.

Back in 2005, the chances that Amvescap, now Invesco, would make a 360-degree turnaround seemed virtually impossible, but with a little bit of time and the addition of Martin Flanagan as chief executive officer, the unlikely actually occurred, Institutional Investor reports.