Special Program Root Tag

Kan Kotecha spent 18 years at Morgan Stanley, working its technology. Then, in May 2009, he left to become head of corporate engineering in Europe, the Middle East and Asia for Google.

The nation’s chief financial officers are expecting technology spending and hiring to each increase 7% over the next 12 months, according to a quarterly survey of sentiment by Baruch College in New York.

As the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to explore ways to evaluate the current market structure, Michael Lynch, head of execution services for the Americas at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, spoke with Traders Magazine about some of the issues concerning the markets and investors, as well as the future of electronic trading.Traders Magazine: What is the biggest issue the desk is facing today?

Janus, a fund shop known for nurturing growth-fund talent, turned to its value-oriented subsidiary, Perkins Investment Management, to co-manage a new fund targeted to risk-averse retiring Baby Boomers.

Fidelity Investments is seeing a definite increase in the number of “breakaway” brokerage teams going independent.

Nuveen Investments Inc. announced Thursday it will buy FAF Advisors from U.S. Bancorp.

Now that Congress has passed the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, more commonly known as the Dodd-Frank bill, it is useful to stand back and assess what Congress did and did not do in this legislation. As with most contested legislation, it is not as extensive as some had hoped and, naturally, it is deemed excessively burdensome by others. But in the quiet period following final passage, we can now separate the likely impact of the bill from the rhetoric and evaluate it in a dispassionate light.

Barry Sommers, head of J.P. Morgan’s 415-strong advisory group, formerly Bear Stearns Private Client Services, is moving over to the bank-brokerage side of Chase’s business, taking charge of the 2,700 advisors working out of its 5,100 branches.

NEW YORK—State Street Global Markets Wednesday unveiled seven new indexes designed to help institutional investors map out hidden market opportunities.

With few newcomers and an aging adviser population, the wealth management industry’s independent channel has become focused on recruiting talent from captive firms.

Buoyed by the strength of the long-term municipal market over the past 18 months, mutual fund assets have climbed to record levels, and portfolio managers have had little need to make major changes to their current investment strategies.

CHICAGO — CIFG Assurance North America Inc. on Monday sued Assured Guaranty Corp., charging it with breach of contract violations for reneging on its obligation to cover the policy on $83.3 million of Xenia Iowa Rural Water District bonds as part of its 19-month-old reinsurance agreement.

Evercore Partners announced today that it has begun to roll out a new equities research group that will focus on telecommunications, media and technology and financial industries.

As Federal Express first indicated last November, it announced Monday that it will restore 401(k) matches. But the wait is still a long way off: The matches don’t start until Jan. 1, 2011.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday asked the financial services industry to comment over the next 30 days on whether there should be different sets of rules for broker-dealers and investment advisors vis-à-vis personalized investment advice to retail investors.

The Investment Company Institute, in partnership with the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, unveiled a new research series on IRAs Tuesday.

The U.S Trust wealth management division of Bank of America Corp. continues pursuing its expansion plans nationally by adding six executives to its Northeast region.

SunGard Data Systems has acquired Fox River Execution, a nine-year-old firm whose algorithms are designed to mimic the experience, thinking and knowledge of a smart trader. Terms were not disclosed.

NEW YORK-The head of NYSE Euronext said Monday that he hoped the technology upgrade it is implementing at the Warsaw Stock Exchange will lead to additional partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe.

With attractive lending opportunities hard to come by, bankers are finding themselves doing what would have been unthinkable just two years ago: discouraging deposits.