Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Talk coffee, not college savings plans. That avoids potential compliance issues. Besides, visitors to social media sites are coming to learn about who you are, not what you sell.

The head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said he’d like to see regular reviews of broker operations, to find and address potential conflicts of interest.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission says that excluding swaps between foreign branches of U.S. companies and offshore organizations is not an option. Now seeks comment how to apply Dodd-Frank swaps reforms abroad.

Trading opened a half hour late Friday. Orders placed on its IPO Cross system did not get delivered to the market. For about two hours, Nasdaq could not issue quotes on Facebook shares. And, yet, it continued trading in Facebook shares, a possible violation of Regulation National Market System.

In the wake of Friday’s announcement of a surprise $2 billion trading loss, JP Morgan Chase Monday said it named Matt Zames its new chief investment officer. Ina Drew will retire.

Financial firms can ‘outsource’ almost any operation, from reporting to trade processing to customer support, to the computing cloud, anywhere in the world.

Mutual fund operators are beginning to use cloud services offered by NYSE Euronext, in its 10-month old launch of a platform for worldwide use of computing resources by financial firms.

Chairman Mary L. Schapiro said Friday that the SEC is in the midst of “honest open debate” on additional reform for the $2.6 trillion money market mutual fund industry. But she did not commit the SEC to proposing their net asset values be allowed to float, as a means of preventing a future run.

Online media pioneer Arianna Huffington told attendees of the Investment Company Institute’s annual membership meeting that “there’s no greater stress than financial stress.’’ And the media needs to do better at spotting and explaining potential points of stress, before they occur.

Regulators in nations around the world, including fast-developing markets, don’t know quite what to make of the asset management business, fund executives said.

ICI chief Paul Schott Stevens said Wednesday that mutual funds need to invest in commodities and derivative securities in order to manage market swings and protect everyday investors. He called new CFTC rule changes 'unwarranted, redundant and costly.'

NYSE Euronext said its trading in futures and options worldwide was up 9.0% in April, compared to first quarter levels. European stocks were up 17.8%, but U.S. stocks down 3.6%.

BX Options will provide “an inexpensive and easy connection” for retail customers wanting to trade in options at high speed. Nasdaq already operates two high-speed options exchanges, Nasdaq OMX PHLX and Nasdaq Options Market.

The April numbers for stock trading, globally, aren't in yet. The hottest big market? BM&F BOVESPA, up less than 1%, year over year, through the end of March.

The big guns -- from PIMCO to State Street -- are now squaring off in one of the tiniest slices of the fund business. But it's not clear yet if there will be a payoff.

Executives managers and top operational leaders of fund companies appear to be downcast about their compensation even as financial market tensions ease.

“The goal is obviously to outperform” market returns and market benchmarks, in general, said Jim Ross, president of SSgA Funds Management.

Investors have now yanked almost $30 billion this year from mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks, according to the Investment Company Institute. And $500 billion since the start of 2007.

The regulator cited the Egan-Jones Ratings Company and its president Sean Egan for “material misrepresentations and omissions” in its 2008 application to become a national ratings agency.

Federico R. Buenrostro, former CEO of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and a friend fabricated documents given to New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management, costing the asset manager $20 million in “fees it would not otherwise have paid,’’ the federal regulator said.