Practice

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is set to pay $2.5 million in restitution and fines after failing to provide discounts to customers on a certain type of redeemable security, the brokerage industry's primary regulator said on Wednesday.

Due to the current complexities surrounding various investment vehicles and their increased due diligence provisions, endowments and foundations are mulling over the possibility to implement an outsourced CIO model, a new SEI study claims.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking the Town of West Warwick, R.I. to fork over documents relating to its pension board’s previous actions.

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

After leading the regulator's division of investment management for four years, Andrew J. Donohue announced he will leave in

High-frequency traders are “market jackals” and not market makers, in increasingly electronic markets, JonesTrading Institutional Services said in a White Paper released Tuesday.

Most prefer self-directed investing rather than "expensive" advisors, according to Spectrem Group.

The Tuition Plan Consortium said Monday it re-launched Independent 529 Plan as Private College 529 Plan, to foster pre-purchasing of tuition fees as present rates. The consortium said its Private College 529 Plan will offer investors a way to lock in tuition rates at more than 275 private colleges and universities.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three firms $242,500 for municipal rules violations. They include $150,000 against Raymond James Financial Services for supervisory failures related to so-called 529 college savings plans it sold to clients.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is being told by some compliance and financial reporting experts that its proposed requirement for broker-dealers to cough up more detailed and frequent financial reports could be too cumbersome and costly to follow.