Regulation

Broker-dealers can offer financial advice that isn't in the best interest of their clients, and the insurance industry wants to keep it that way.

WASHINGTON — Where to put a proposed new consumer protection division appears to have become a game of musical chairs.

On Wednesday's split 3-2 vote along party lines, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved new restrictions on short sales that aim to improve investor confidence in the markets.

WASHINGTON — Regulators were picked apart Friday by members of two House committees, who blamed them for a dramatic drop in lending and urged them to ease up on bankers.

Critics claim it will hurt securitizations, limit flow of credit

Vice President Joe Biden unveiled the Middle Class Task Force's new report on the middle class Friday, in which he outlined plans to offer automatic Individual Retirement Accounts to most Americans, provided clarification for giving advice to plan participants, and offered a proposal to allow plans to provide guaranteed retirement income products.

As if working for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities wasn’t stigma enough, benefits consulting firm Hooker and Holcombe is using 6% of the money in the bankrupt company’s 401(k) plan to cover the $100,000 cost of winding it down. Across the board, every account in the plan is being deducted by that percent.

If the U.S. mutual fund industry would like a clearer picture of what would happen to sales if fees—particularly up-front, sales load, 12b-1 or 401(k) fees—were disclosed, it need only take a look at the disastrous results in India.

The result of not having a uniform fiduciary standard for advisors across the board is the harm that investors will experience

The International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Financial Services Authority are members, starting in September will ask hedge funds to provide high-level, bi-annual snapshots of: their stock and bond holdings, geographic and underlying currency exposure, leverage levels, sales and redemptions, investor classifications, primary marketing channels, recent performance, and operations and technology details, including turnover, clearing mechanisms and risk measures.