Practice

Merrill Lynch is set to pay New Jersey $728,260 in civil penalties and change its business practices to be in compliance with state law.

The head of the BlackRock product team for exchange-traded funds is urging the SEC and CFTC to establish circuit breakers across all exchanges that were uniform for both stocks and ETFs.

Three-quarters oppose cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit as the government program celebrates its 75th anniversary.

The proposal, which would only apply to banks supervised by the agency, said institutions should give customers the chance to opt out of overdraft programs for their checking accounts and any automated clearing house transfers, as well as monitor overdraft usage to avoid unfair consumer fees.

Three out of every four adults age 18 or older are factoring in Social Security income when planning ahead for their retirement, according to a survey released Wednesday by AARP. Even among younger people aged 18 to 29, 62% expect to rely on Social Security.

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund reported on Wednesday that its donors made more than 152,000 grants totaling $531 million during the first six months of 2010, the strongest first half for outgoing grants in the Gift Fund’s 19-year history.

New survey finds baby boomers are willing to spend less now in order to live the “good life” in retirement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at such mechanisms as price collars and limits on upward or downward movements in a stock in a single day, in the wake of the May 6th "flash crash."

An overreliance on computer systems and high-frequency trading are seen by financial advisors as the primary drivers of the sharpest single-day point decline in Dow Jones history, according to a survey commissioned by the iShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, conducted by Market Strategies International and released by BlackRock, the investment advisory firm.

Congressman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has introduced legislation that would allow companies to set up automatic payroll deposit Individual Retirement Accounts, or Auto IRAs, for workers who do not have access to employer-provided qualified pension plans.