Hedge funds

The International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Financial Services Authority are members, starting in September will ask hedge funds to provide high-level, bi-annual snapshots of: their stock and bond holdings, geographic and underlying currency exposure, leverage levels, sales and redemptions, investor classifications, primary marketing channels, recent performance, and operations and technology details, including turnover, clearing mechanisms and risk measures.

Citigroup is looking to sell a hedge fund unit with $4 billion in assets under management to SkyBridge Capital, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the talks.

When Mary Schapiro took office as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission last year, she faced a myriad of issues related to the financial crisis—and outlined a series of new regulations that, so far, have come up short, The Washington Post reports.

BlackRock isn’t satisfied with its December 2009 acquisition of Barclays Global Investors, according to a Daily Mail of London report. Now the $2.7 trillion investment giant is considering buying hedge fund manager of managers Man Group.

Charles Schwab is attracting a slew of new assets, and daily average trades are rising. New and established clients brought the company $6 billion of net new assets in January, according to its monthly market activity report. Total client assets rose 27% from a year earlier, to $1.401 trillion, but were down 2% from December because of difficult market conditions.

The financial crisis has made a permanent impression on American consumers, who are likely to save 6% or more of their income over the next decade, translating to as much as $800 billion stashed away each year, according to a new study by Allianz Group.

Morningstar has acquired Footnoted.org, the terms of the deal undisclosed.

Fee-based financial advisers are grappling with the fallout from the crash of 2008 and see tactical asset management as the way to navigate the current market, according to a survey of 750 advisers by Jefferson National.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) rose in January by one percent to 93.2, the fifth consecutive month it has risen. However, it is down 0.7% from a year ago.

With consumers pessimistic about the current state of the economy and the future, U.S. consumer confidence fell 32.4% in February from a month earlier, according to the RBC Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household Index.

It will be harder for advisers and money managers to outperform this year after a strong 2009, but there are still a few key areas of opportunity, Larry Adam, the chief investment strategist for Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, said during a conference call.

More than half of CPA financial planners say their wealthy clients are not confident in the stock market, according to a survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

Fully 100% of the 25 private clients who SEI interviewed said that wealth management is not transparent, yet 100% of the 25 wealth management firms SEI spoke to believe transparency is important to rebuild client confidence.

Sixty-five percent of equities and 58% of options traders believe the S&P 500 Index will rise between 5% and 20% in 2010, according to a survey of 240 investors by online broker TradeKing. Many said they are more confident about the stock market now that the Obama administration has shifted its focus from healthcare reform to job creation.

The 4% decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in January could portend worse things to come for the stock market and the economy, Mohamed A. El-Erian, co-chief investment officer of PIMCO, recently wrote in a Bloomberg News column.

Among financial services firms well known to investors, affluent investors have the most favorable impression of Fidelity, Vanguard and American Funds. This is according to a Phoenix Marketing International survey of 850 investors age 35 to 64 with household income and investable assets, excluding workplace retirement plans, of at least $100,000 conducted this past November.

Following the financial crisis, advisers are most likely to recommend financial services companies they perceive as ethical and trustworthy, Phoenix Marketing International research shows. Conducted this past November, the Phoenix study shows that American Funds, Vanguard, John Hancock, Franklin Templeton and Fidelity command the most favorable impression among firms well known to advisers. In terms of brand recognition, advisers cited Hancock, Prudential, Vanguard and MetLife as leaders.

Advisor confidence in the economy and the stock market rose in January, according to Rydex SGI AdvisorBenchmarking.

Bank of New York Mellon is in talks to acquire the investment servicing unit of PNC Financial Services for as much as $2.5 billion to attract hedge fund and mutual fund clients, Bloomberg reports.

After spending much of the past two years repairing its balance sheet, E-Trade Financial Corp. plans to shift its customer base from just active traders to include more long-term investors.