Special Program Root Tag

The MF Global collapse provides an important lesson concerning the effectiveness of the principal, or proprietary, banking model. Leading up to the financial crisis, principal banking had replaced slow-growing, client-focused agency banking as the dominant model for large banks. Institutions focused on executing transactions as principals for their own accounts instead of for their clients.

The population may be aging, but that hasn’t gotten a lot of Americans to plan for retirement. About 71% of Americans lack a formal investment plan to help them reach their retirement goals, according to one study.

Financial advisers will remember 2011 as “The Year of Volatility” or “The Year of Uncertainty,” according to a survey of 200 financial advisers polled by the SEI Advisor Network, an asset management and back-office administration service provider to financial advisers.

The merger of NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse has been cleared on the New York side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Total retirement assets were $17.0 trillion as of Sept. 30, down 7.5% from a record high of $18.4 trillion as of June 30, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday, attributing most of the decline to the 13.9% decline in the S&P 500 Index in the third quarter. Assets might have declined even further were it not for automatic contributions to 401(k)s, the ICI said.

After a decade marked by two severe bear markets, 401(k) investors have adopted a more balanced approach to their portfolios, according to a report released Wednesday by the Investment Company Institute and the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext have offered to cap fees on trading in their European derivatives contracts for three years in their last-ditch effort to get their $9 billion merger cleared by the European Union.

inShareWells Fargo & Co. has signed a deal to acquire investment boutique EverKey Global Partners.

For once, it’s the whippersnappers who are behaving more wisely. At least when it comes to saving, Generation X and Generation Y workers are more diligent than their peers.

inShare WASHINGTON — Federal regulators Tuesday unveiled a highly-anticipated proposal that details how they plan to regulate the largest domestic financial firms, including new capital and liquidity requirements.

Dalbar has announced its 2011 Mutual Fund Service Award Winners in Financial Services—with top honors for customer service going to:

Versus Capital will launch a retail mutual fund-of-funds that invests directly in income-producing real estate—a type of investment typically only available to institutional investors. Callan Associates will serve as sub-advisor.

Global X Funds is liquidating eight of its exchange-traded funds, including a fund focused on emerging markets and another on waste management. All of the funds trade on NYSE Arca. The eight closings, scheduled for Feb. 27, with the last day of trading on Feb. 16, are:

Americans’ financial outlook is ending 2011 with a continued rise in confidence, the Country Financial Security Index shows. The index rose 1.6 points in December, to end the year at 64.8.

A jury for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled in favor of a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against a former Prudential Securities registered rep for market timing mutual funds between 2001 and 2003.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said that the former controller of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities pled guilty to four counts of falsifying records.

Market volatility is pushing fund managers to look for robust investment risk management systems, says a report from financial consultancy Celent.

More than 80% of investment advisors would prefer to pay user fees to fund greater SEC oversight than to be overseen by a self-regulatory organization, a major new study found.

Invesco has launched the Invesco Premium Income Fund, aimed at investors looking for current income streams. The strategy is designed “to provide protection during periods of economic stress” while still meeting income goals, the firm said.

A new rule proposed by FINRA to help carrying and clearing firms transfer customer accounts if they go bust will be too cumbersome and costly to follow.