Christopher Condon

A year ago, when opposition from the asset-management industry killed her plan to make money-market mutual funds safer, sec Chairman Mary Schapiro looked to Timothy Geithner, then the Treasury Secretary, to tackle “one of the pieces of unfinished business from the financial crisis.” It remains unfinished.

Northern Trust Corp., the third- biggest independent U.S. custody bank, said second-quarter profit rose a smaller-than-expected 6.2 percent as stock-market gains boosted the value of assets the company oversees.

David Blain, a financial adviser in New Bern, North Carolina, likes exchange-traded funds so much he’s put all his clients’ money in them. He also thinks individual investors trading ETFs on their own may be in for surprises when markets come under stress.

The mutual-fund industry, in what may be the last round of lobbying against tighter rules for money-market funds, rejected a scaled-back proposal to force only the riskiest funds to give up their stable $1 share price.

Northern Trust, the third- biggest independent U.S. custody bank, said first-quarter profit rose 1.7 percent as stock-market gains boosted the value of assets the company oversees.

BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager, is cutting about 300 jobs, extending a reorganization that included the shakeup of its investment units last year.

Fidelity Investments, the biggest U.S. manager of money-market mutual funds, said there is growing agreement among company leaders and regulators to limit any new rules for the products to those eligible to buy corporate debt.

The SEC and the IRS have met to discuss tax implications if money-market mutual funds were to adopt a floating share price, two people familiar with the talks said.