Special Program Root Tag

The securities industry added almost 7,000 jobs in June, and revisions to the previous months’ figures mean there were 4,000 more positions created than had been reported at the time, according to BrokerHunter.com’s latest Employment Trends report.

The day after Congress voted 60 to 39 to pass the historic overhaul of financial rules, Wall Street - the mutual fund and hedge fund industries included - is already bucking up for the corrections bill.

LPL Financial is acquiring “certain assets” from National Retirement Partners, the broker/dealer announced Wednesday.

Chairman Gary Gensler Wednesday told the Technology Advisory Committee of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission "we must improve our ability to employ modern technology to automate our surveillance" of markets."

WASHINGTON — Although the Senate finally voted Thursday to send regulatory reform to the president's desk, policy circles are already abuzz about what changes to seek in a "corrections" bill to fix problems with the legislation.

The Department of Labor issued an interim final rule on fee disclosure in 401(k) plans Thursday morning. The final Rule 408(b)2 relieves plan sponsors and their fund providers and consultants from having to share and store written documentation on disclosure obligations.

Fund managers could end up finding out about corporate agendas far sooner and disclosing far more about their voting activities if some of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed changes to the proxy system eventually become effective.

No one’s said anything yet about it, but a fiduciary standard will mean not just keeping an investor’s interests ahead of one’s own. It will also mean making sure that customer knows what that is costing.

On July 1, final amendments were passed on a new incarnation of pan-European legislation that will make it easier and faster for fund managers to set up shop in different countries and market their funds in more locations. The changes will take effect in July 2011.

Bank of America Corp. is charging some customers to receive their monthly statement in the mail, the industry's most aggressive move yet to encourage paperless banking.

Affluent investors ended the first half of the year on a sour note, their confidence slipping seven points in June, to minus-12 on Spectrem Group's Affluent Investor Confidence Index, but advisers say that falling confidence presents an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

Despite investor concerns about a global economic recovery, BlackRock's Bob Doll and Deutsche Bank's Ben Pace are optimistic.

In its long-awaited concept release on the proxy “plumbing” process, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday sought public comment on making changes to the proxy voting and distribution system but fell far short of advocating any major overhaul.

Standardize the data. Automate the reconciliation. That is how fund managers have to keep costs down, as trading volumes grow and the types of assets being exchanged multiply.

If the fund management industry thinks it’s gotten away scot-free on the Dodd-Frank financial regulation reform bill—and several senior fund executives went on the record last week to say it has no impact—the industry’s got another thing coming.

July 20 - The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. - 2010 Global Asset Management Report - 8:15 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. BCG's New York Office at 430 Park Avenue (between 55th and 56th). For more information, please contact David Fondiller at 212/446-3257 or fondiller.david@bcg.com

To paraphrase George Orwell’s science-fiction classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which the government takes mind control of all citizens — the same could happen to mutual fund advertisements in 2012. That’s when past performance could go down "Memory hole."

Twelve percent more fund managers surveyed this month by Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast that the global economy will deteriorate in the next 12 months, than said the economy would grow. Last month, the net result of the survey was that, on balance, 24% more fund managers predicted the global economy would pick up steam, than lose it.

An age-old standard, gold, was one of the most touted alternative investments at the Morningstar 2010 Investment Conference in Chicago last month.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said ishe personally backs a blanket fiduciary standard for advisers.