Special Program Root Tag

The sovereign debt crisis coupled with persistently high unemployment rates in the United States and continued fears over the 2008 financial meltdown has rocked investor confidence, so much so that investor mood has completely turned around in the past month.

JPMorgan Asset Management has named George Gatch, currently CEO of its mutual funds business, as the new head of investment management services for the U.S. and Canada. He is effectively replacing Eve Guernsey, who is retiring, the firm confirmed Monday.

Charles Boucher is leaving his post as chief information officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission, after 19 months.

The Morningstar 2010 Investment Conference in Chicago was chock-full of sessions on international investing, and the hallways were abuzz with talk of emerging markets. Yet some fund managers damped the excitement, saying that although emerging markets are hot, these investments will not be able to live up to expectations.

The hot topic in the media right now is actively managed exchange-traded funds. But given how relatively small the actively-managed ETF universe is compared to the overall ETF universe, this product has received an outsized amount of attention.

Demand for health savings accounts seems to be reviving after a long period of inertia that preceded the passage of health care reform.

Aon Corp. announced Monday it is buying Hewitt Associates for $4.9 billion, with the aim of creating the world’s leading “human capital solutions” company. The combined company will be called Aon Hewitt.

Hedge funds finished the volatile first half with modest declines. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index lost 0.81% in June, more than offsetting the gains in the first five months of the year to leave the index down 0.18% for the first half of 2010.

Fiduciary Trust Co. International continued its aggressive hiring spree, adding Mary Davey and Lisa Marcus as senior relationship manager and business development officer, respectively.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is making risk disclosures one of its highest priorities, with the goal of doing a better job of regulating derivates, hedge funds and credit rating agencies.

The financial services reform bill in Congress calls for 68 in-depth studies into financial services products and practices, including: performance data in mutual fund advertisements, short selling and stronger insurance regulation, which could impact annuities and other retirement income products.

The operational strength of a hedge fund is now just as important to institutional investors as the pedigree and track record of its manager. And fund managers are taking notice

Financial services companies have added some 2,000 jobs since layoffs peaked in February of this year, The New York Times reports. And while it may seem as if Wall Street jobs took the biggest hit in the recession, the industry has actually been pretty resilient. Since June 2008, jobs in financial services have dropped by 8.5%. By comparison, construction jobs decreased by 22%, and manufacturing employment fell 14%.

Bank of America Corp. hired two veterans from Fidelity Investments to help continue the expansion of its retirement services operation.

A loss of confidence among wealthy clients and a lack of efficiency in banking business models has hit the global wealth management industry. The good news is that there is $10 trillion in high-net-worth bankable assets that haven’t been tapped, according to Scorpio Partnership’s 2010 Global Private Banking study, released Thursday.

Fieldpoint Private Bank and Trust announced Wednesday that it hired Robert S. Matthews as its president and chief executive.

It might seem strange to bring up reverse mortgages in a space dedicated to the lives of Baby Boomers.

Canadian fund managers will now be limited in the range of services they can pay for with commissions from clients for brokering transactions, based on newly adopted legislation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday that it will hold an open meeting on July 14 to consider whether to issue a concept release on proxy reform.

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