Investments

Yields on floating-rate municipal prepaid gas bonds with ties to BP have spiked to nearly 9% from less than 0.5% as credit analysts continue to cut their ratings on the oil giant.

RS Investments of San Francisco has entered into an agreement to adopt the portfolio management team of Oak Value Capital Management.

RS Investments, San Francisco, announced Thursday it has entered into an agreement to acquire the portfolio management team of Oak Value Capital Management, Inc. of Chapel Hill, N.C. RS will also acquire "certain assets of that firm, including its investment management relationships," the company said.

CHICAGO—The $787 billion debt overhang the federal government absorbed from the failed banking sector from the 2008 credit crisis will not come due until 2020, or perhaps later.

Vanguard Group announced Thursday an aggressive expansion strategy to expand its index fund family.The Valley Forge, Pa., mutual fund giant plans to introduce 19 new funds with exchange-traded fund in an effort to offer a wider array of low-cost stock and bond options. The firm will also launch ETF shares of its flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund.

Think way back — well, a few months ago — to all the hype about how private-equity firms were poised to swoop in and buy struggling banks left and right.

The mutual fund giant plans to launch equity funds and ETFs along with municipal bond and international real estate products

Iowa, an earlier user of Build America Bonds, won't draw on that program again for two upcoming sales because the savings are not worth the worries over heightened scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service, Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald said yesterday.

Proposed extensions to major bond provisions have survived several revisions of pending tax legislation, but municipal market participants are wondering if more controversial, non-bond provisions could scuttle the entire package.

See Advisor TV video here: http://www.financial-planning.com/video/morningstar-dolan-advisortv2667536-1.html

Wells Fargo is merging nearly $2.2 billion of Evergreen Investments municipal bond mutual funds into existing Wells funds as part of the bank’s purchase of Wachovia.

Illinois’ debt manager returns tomorrow from an overseas tour where he sought to whet the appetites of European and Asian institutional buyers for his beleaguered state’s paper ahead of a $900 million taxable Build America Bond sale.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. announced Tuesday it launched a unit designed to clear futures and derivatives trades.

CHICAGO — The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a review of a failed investment by five southeastern Wisconsin school districts in collateralized debt obligations that were intended to establish trusts to pay the districts’ non-pension retiree healthcare benefits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged ICP Asset Management LLC and its founder and President, Thomas Priore, with defrauding investors in four multi-billion-dollar collateralized debt obligations that were insured by American International Group.

Financial advisers are starting to turn their backs on the idea of going independent and are instead favoring the benefits of working at wire houses, a survey found.

Spectrem Group’s latest report finds many investors are satisfied with advisory firms’ communications regarding fees and variable products.

ETF Trends launches an enhanced version.

Suddenly, Florida is the ripening fruit for many bank buyers, which raises the question, How did that happen?

American Banker | Monday, June 21, 2010