Portfolio

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is developing a system that will tell its examiners and firms’ compliance officials whether firms that sold munis with material-event disclosures passed that information on to customers.

The global flight from risk continued to bolster the municipal bond market on Wednesday as the prospect of a nuclear meltdown in Japan enhanced the appeal of the shelter of low-risk bonds.

But $193 million leaves equity funds.

Long-term funds took in $4.5 billion in the week ended March 9, the Investment Company Institute said.

Seventy-one percent of financial advisers foresee the greatest investment opportunities in the decade ahead outside of the U.S., a survey of 556 advisers by Franklin Templeton and SourceMedia found.

Van Eck has launched the Market Vectors Colombia ETF in response to investors’ growing interest in emerging markets outside the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

Bank sales of total annuities regressed slightly in January, according to the latest Kehrer-Jackson Monthly Bank Annuity Sales Survey, but overall investor interest still remains much higher for both than it was at this time last year.

PIMCO will begin building new headquarters in Newport Beach, Calif., in late summer, with completion scheduled for the end of 2013. Architect Henry Cobb is designing the office, and Irvine Co. is building it.

Global X Funds has launched two new exchange-traded funds, the Global X Pure Gold Miners ETF and the Global X Oil Equities ETF.