Practice

Sen. Richard Shelby raised concerns with bankers on Thursday that "too big to fail" would survive if a proposed $50 billion fund to help unwind failing financial institutions remains in the Senate's latest regulatory reform bill.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair opened the door Thursday to extending blanket deposit insurance coverage on business accounts, but disagreed with another regulator's push to count more loan-loss reserves as capital.

The unwinding of the Federal Reserve's liquidity programs is unlikely to boost the sickly yields on tax-free money market funds, participants say.

Redemption fees successfully protect mutual funds from short-term traders, whose churning can serious hurt fund performance, according to “Redemption Fees: Reward for Punishment,” authored by three researchers at Texas Tech University’s Division of Personal Financial Planning.

A Dutch pension fund is the latest in a string of lawsuits against the banking company.

In a move that surprised the industry Wednesday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s head of enforcement announced to her employees that she would step down.

But the organization remains strongly opposed to doing away with a steady net asset value, which is usually $1.00 per share, and is a fundamental feature of money market funds.

More people, 69%, are rolling over their 401(k) savings to a new employer’s plan or an IRA when switching jobs, according to Charles Schwab’s analysis of plans between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the end of 2009.

The recession has crushed the “free agent” mentality that has prevailed among American workers who had freely job-hopped since the 1990s, Towers Watson found in a survey of 22,000 employees in 22 markets around the world.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a vigorous defense of his agency's oversight of holding companies and state banks, rejecting a Senate bill that would strip them of supervisory powers over all but the biggest institutions.