Money Management Executive Latest News

Investors Remained Loyal to 401(k)s In First Half of 2009, ICI Reports

SEC Names Storch New Enforcement Executive

Noting the urgency and immensity of their task, global financial leaders are frantically making small and large changes to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and international financial accounting standards (IFRS) to make them more similar, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has recently made a single set of standards a high priority.

Since the stock market decline a year ago, there has been much talk of permanent decrease in investors' risk tolerance. Many investors' losses were staggering, goes the refrain, so their tolerance for risk will, for the foreseeable future if not a generation, be substantially lower.

Fidelity Investments has augmented its international trading platform, enabling retail investors, advisers and brokers to trade foreign stocks and currencies in real time. The platform gives retail investors access to 12 foreign markets and eight currencies, along with third-party research, news, real-time market data and quotes, and telephone access to international trading specialists 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Following up on President Obama's mandate for change, regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently crafted a report that details their plans to harmonize the regulation of futures and securities.

Federated Investors reported third quarter earnings of $57 million, or 56 cents a share, down 1% from $56.2 million, or 52 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined 4% to $293.6 million, as the firm absorbed fees on some of its mutual fund to maintain $1 net asset values.

Janus reported third quarter earnings of $8.2 million, or five cents a share, a 68% decline from the $25.4 million, or 16 cents a share, it earned in the year ago. Revenue declined 17% to $227.6 million.

Legg Mason earned $45.8 million, or 30 cents a share, for the second fiscal quarter of 2010, compared to a loss of $108.7 million, or 77 cents a share, a year earlier. The firm’s assets under management rose 7% from the previous quarter to $702.7 billion but were down 17% from a year earlier.

Barclays Wealth jumped into the active exchange-traded fund pool this month, launching a family of eight actively managed ETFs geared toward high-net-worth investors.