While Fidelity, with $876.2 billion of assets under management, can afford to place trades without any research quid-pro-quo benefits, other firms are not as well equipped. "Youd find that a lot firms would cease to exist," Grady G. Thomas, president of Interstate Group, an independent research firm, told Reuters.
But other, more neutral observers of the industry believe the transparency would push trading costs lower, thereby benefiting shareholders and the entire industry. "Frankly, this is a fight the industry should have taken up years ago," said Don Phillips, managing director at
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The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.