Portfolio

The Securities and Exchange Commission today for the first time charged a state–New Jersey–with violating securities fraud laws by failing to disclose to bond investors that it was underfunding its two largest pension plans.

BNP Paribas has pushed to reorganize its corporate and investment banking business in the Americas by making some key staffing swaps within equities, derivatives and structured finance, the firm said yesterday.

On Tuesday Northern Trust's asset management arm, Northern Trust Global Investments, launched a Frontier Markets index fund for institutional investors with exposure to under-represented regions such as Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as well as a Asia and the Americas.

For all those young investors out there who are willing to take more risk with their retirement plans because of their longer time horizon, Vanguard has a new fund for you.

While broker-dealers want to manage client assets at the home-office level, advisors want more control of clients’ asset allocation.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Tuesday said it is contemplating a rule change that would prohibit dealers from underwriting new negotiated or competitive bond issues if they served as the issuer's financial adviser on the transaction.

Although there were sharp disagreements at a Treasury Department conference Tuesday about what kind of role the government should take in the future of housing finance, one idea in particular seems to be gaining momentum: creating an insurance fund to back mortgage-backed securities. future-of-housing-finance

Investors are more optimistic this month about the economy than they were last month, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Fixed annuities drag the overall numbers down, but variable annuity sales are growing at a healthy clip.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. plans to reduced the lineup of mutual funds run by Columbia Management, but step up marketing and add jobs, according to a report in the Boston Globe.