Money Management Executive Latest News

Less than a third of investors are aware of a closing loophole that could allow them to convert a Roth IRA into a traditional IRA.

The asset management industry saw the ground shift under its feet during the recent financial crisis, but there are still plenty of signs of resiliency, according to a new benchmarking study from consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Besides ensuring orderly pricing in equity markets, outflows from stock mutual funds that have occurred every single week in the four months since the May 6 Flash Crash, for estimated redemptions totaling more than $50 billion, are causing grave concerns at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to revise its approach to circuit breakers on the nation’s equities exchanges, to include a “careful review” of price bands that limit how far up or down the price of a stock can move at any given time.

Putnam Investments requested Congress pass two recently-introduced bills that would require employers to automatically enroll employees in a payroll-deduction IRA.

NYSE Euronext said its cash trading in equities in the United States is down 21.8% from a year ago, while it global volume in derivative transactions is up 8.4%.

Represented by an influential lobbying group, broker-dealers are striking out against proposed regulations which would require them to adhere to an equal “fiduciary” standard with registered investment advisors in giving advice to retail investors.

In anticipation of a new wave of growth in the mutual fund industry, SimCorp has launched a self-assessment center for companies where they can see how well prepared they are to introduce new services and offerings, as well as to support them with existing systems, and to enter new geographical markets.

Moody’s has created a new five-point rating scale for money market funds to take into account factors that proved to be critical in the credit crisis, including: a fund portfolio’s underlying asset quality, ability to preserve principal while providing liquidity, susceptibility to market risk and the likelihood of support from its sponsor in the event of a “run” on the fund.

Investors continue to stuff cash into municipal bond mutual funds, exacerbating a supply-demand imbalance that has kept yields on tax-exempt bonds near historic lows.