Alternative investments

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.

NEW YORK - The freewheeling days for hedge funds may be numbered.

WELLESLEY, Mass. - Gone are the supposed days when wholesalers stood around conference booths all day, cavalierly handing out golf balls, or taking brokers out for cigars and whiskey. To get through the new "Fund Selection Unit" gatekeepers at brokerage firms, today's wholesalers need not just have excellent people skills and be nimble, but be highly knowledgeable about the mutual funds they are selling, retirement planning issues and the economy, as well as be technologically savvy.

Cash-strapped banks are hoping the Federal Reserve will loosen restrictions keeping private-equity firms from giving them capital, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Hennion and Walsh, a small New Jersey fund firm, is introducing ETFs into 401k plans by wrapping them in mutual funds.

Fred Alger Management has announced its plans to consolidate all of its open-end mutual funds into the Alger brand by September.

Direxion Fund’s Commodity Trends Strategy Fund has been benefiting from all this interest in commodities.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Gavin charged UBS AG's UBS Securities, LLC and UBS Financial Services with fraud and dishonest conduct regarding the firms’ retail sales of auction-rate securities.

Leading mutual fund and exchange-traded fund provider Vanguard has launched the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund. This fund is set to track the performance of the FTSE All-World Index, which is a market-capitalized-weighted index serving as a benchmark of about 2,900 stocks throughout 47 countries.

Retirees may need more money than previously expected in order to cover all their health care costs, according to a supplemental study released Thursday by Fidelity Investments.

Barclays Bank PLC has introduced its iPath Global Carbon Exchange Traded Note on the NYSE Arca stock exchange.

Plans are currently underway to create a new commodities exchange in Hong Kong, potentially giving China a larger role in setting the world’s petroleum prices and adding to the reputation it craves as a global, economic powerhouse.

Hedge funds have recently increased their investment in aggressive, exchange-traded funds.

Recent hikes in oil prices and far-too-turbulent markets may have caused unwanted stress for investors, but Steven Lehman thinks he might be able to provide a glimpse of hope to pessimists by ditching the traditional pattern of investing domestically, according to The Wall Street Journal.