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A report conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and released this week by SAS, the big business analytics software firm, warns that financial institutions, particularly in the U.S., are “feeling too comfortable” about their risk management systems and suggests they may be unprepared for the next crisis.

Direxion has launched five new daily leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds, focused on sectors that have attracted large assets and have high trading volume.

Enrollment in high-deductible health insurance plans that can be linked to health savings plans rose 14% in 2010, according to the trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans. And since 2008, enrollment has in such plans spiked by 87%.

Two years after proposing rules to avert misuse of client assets on the scale of the Madoff ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed amendments that would strengthen oversight of broker-dealer audits.

Huntington Bancshares this week rolled out mobile banking applications for customers' iPhones and Android-powered smartphones that will allow them to check balances, pay bills and transfer funds on the fly.

Portware said it is working with Thomson Reuters to create a broad range of trading services, available globally on-demand.

Orange Business Services said it launched an online store for selling applications that can run on its intelligent trading turret devices. The apps will run on its Open Trade smart turret, introduced in 2010 and intended to be used as a “personal trading assistant.''

A survey of 1,009 adults by Edward Jones on their retirement savings found good news and bad news. While 15% said their portfolios have recovered from the economic downturn, up from 12% in April 2010, 25% are not saving for retirement, up from 16% a year ago.

The question of whether some banks are still "too big to fail" will not be settled until the next crisis. That, in a nutshell, was the takeaway from a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, where lawmakers fought with each other over whether the Dodd-Frank Act adequately addressed the problem.

When Congress threatened to cap the interchange fees that banks collect on debit card transactions, the industry argued that such a move would force it to kill off its own debit rewards programs. As it turns out, the demise of those programs might inconvenience consumers but it is unlikely to deal banks much of a financial blow.

A new survey from Polachi Inc., a Framingham, Mass.-based executive recruiter for clean technology and venture capital firms, found that 77% of venture capital executives are more confident and optimistic about their industry today than they were a year ago.

Nearly 10 million adult children over the age of 50 care for their aging parents, at an average cost of $324,044 in lost wages and Social Security benefits for women and $283,716 for men, according to a new study from MetLife, the National Alliance for Caregiving and New York Medical College.

As an advisor, are you the equivalent of an “economic good” or a “free good?” Advisors who want to succeed in the future must make sure they are an “economic good” type of advisor and not a “free good” advisor.

Farrah Fawcett, dying from cancer, floated in and out of consciousness and needed a full-time nurse when Ryan O’Neal interceded to appease NBC and make sure a documentary about Fawcett’s struggle with cancer aired in time for the May sweeps period. At least, that’s the picture painted in a recent New York Times article.

Christopher Adams returns to Citi in a new position as managing director of investment finance in the firm’s New York office.

The 1976 film “All the President’s Men” made famous the line "follow the money" and inspired an entire generation of muckraking journalists. Now some analysts at Standard & Poor's are saying their research shows this philosophy could also serve as a good starting point for identifying strong-performing mutual funds.

IndexIQ has launched the IQ US Real Estate Small Cap ETF (ticker: ROOF), which it says is the first ETF focused on small-cap U.S. real estate.

As an advisor, your website is your most important piece of Internet real estate. It’s the first stop for people who want to learn more about you. In fact, it's likely that your website now makes more first impressions than you do. As such, it plays a significant role in shaping people’s opinion of your practice and your services so it's crucial to do it right.

The fund will be sub-advised by four global advisory firms.

Positive yet cautious hiring intentions are expected to persist throughout the summer, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. The Net Employment Outlook for the third quarter is +8%, up from +6% in the third quarter of 2010.