Practice

Although women are just as optimistic as men about the stock market, women are much less confident about their investment decisions, according to a survey by MassMutual.

Retirement plans, endowments, foundations and other large investors in North America will turn over $420 billion in assets to new investment advisors, according to the “2010 Consultant Search Forecast” survey of 70 leading investment consulting firms by eVestment Alliance and Casey, Quirk & Associates.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Financial Services Authority are members, starting in September will ask hedge funds to provide high-level, bi-annual snapshots of: their stock and bond holdings, geographic and underlying currency exposure, leverage levels, sales and redemptions, investor classifications, primary marketing channels, recent performance, and operations and technology details, including turnover, clearing mechanisms and risk measures.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged one of Bernard Madoff's key operatives with falsifying accounting records to enable the multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme and illegally enrich himself, Madoff, and Madoff’s family and employees.

A former Deloitte tax professional has agreed to pay approximately $144,000 to settle insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wyden, Gregg ­Address Munis

WASHINGTON — The regulatory reform debate has now come full circle.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive Jamie Dimon said during his company's annual investor day Thursday that he has been turned off by the "capricious, arbitrary and punitive behavior" of regulators since his company accepted $25 billion in aid as part of the bailout of the financial industry in 2008.

In an effort to boost confidence in the market, the Securities and Exchange Commission decided to place restrictions on short-selling, the controversial trading practice of betting on a stock's decline.

Ask a broker why 12b-1 fees exist and you’ll get a variety of answers. The SEC's chairman said there should be greater transparency around the fees, which could be as high as 1%.