Investments

Goldman Sachs portfolio manager and executive Donald J. Mulvihill Jr. died on July 19 at age 56 in the Chicago area.

Federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against SAC Capital on Thursday. Dubbing SAC “a veritable magnet of market cheaters,” authorities argued that the company allowed a “systematic” insider trading scheme to play out between 1999 to 2010. It is deemed that the scheme generated profits for the firm in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Asset management mergers and acquisitions are on the rise and all signs are pointing to another healthy year for deal activity.

During the first quarter of 2013, banks generated $790.7 million in annuity sales, up 1.2% from $781.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Many large managers of municipal bond funds with Detroit paper said they haven't heard any panic from their investing clients since the city filed for bankruptcy and many of their funds have lost value.

As Roth 401(k) plans continue to spread, young workers increasingly are voting to go Roth. In the first quarter of 2013, 10% of all participants in Wells Fargo-administered defined contribution plans contributed to a Roth 401(k), when available, up from 8.9% a year earlier. Leading the way were employees under age 30: 16.9% chose the Roth route, a jump from 15.2% participation in last year’s first quarter. (Only 4% of participants in their 60s chose the Roth version this year.)

BNY Mellon has been appointed as the successor depositary bank for the Global Depositary Receipt (GDR) program of JSC Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System. Each Federal Grid Company GDR represents 500 ordinary shares and trades on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol "FEES." Federal Grid Company's ordinary shares trade on the Moscow Exchange under the symbol "FEES."

A Texas man has been accused by regulators of running a Ponzi scheme involving the digital currency Bitcoin. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Trendon Shavers with defrauding investors of nearly $150,000 worth of bitcoins through Bitcoin Savings and Trust, an online investment scheme he ran, and of making false claims while soliciting investments online in 2011 and 2012.

Financial advisors across the spectrum-at registered investment advisors, wirehouses and independent broker-dealers-are at a loss when it comes to understanding liquidity of exchange-traded funds, according to new research from Cerulli Associates.

Participants in the 2013 CFO Outlook Mid-Year Update gave the U.S. economy an average score of 58 out of 100. This figure was up from 49 in the last survey conducted late last year. The global economy received a score of 51, up from 45.

Demographics have led to desperation, and the next steps on that path have been towards the rich recruiting bonuses offered by wirehouses to productive advisors. Those tempting payments aren’t going away, but further improvements are “highly unlikely,” according to Mark Elzweig, who heads a New York-based executive search firm focusing on the asset management community.

Bloomberg — Herbert Allison Jr., the onetime president of Merrill Lynch & Co. who oversaw the U.S. government’s bank-bailout program following the financial crisis that led to his former company becoming a unit of Bank of America Corp., has died. He was 69.

The current market bodes well for certain sectors of stocks that have historically outperformed in rising rate environments, says a new Lord Abbett study.

Participants in the 2013 CFO Outlook Mid-Year Update gave the U.S. economy an average score of 58 out of 100. This figure was up f rom 49 in the last survey conducted late last year. The global economy received a score of 51, up from 45.

Earlier this month, Nuveen Asset Management revealed that its Chief Equity Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager Bob Doll will be taking on a new slate of equity funds including traditional, specialty and alternative funds.

Over the past two decades, investors have paid less and less to own shares of mutual funds. That's because investors demand low-cost funds, and because the fund industry is one characterized by competition, innovation, and economies of scale.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch launched Monday an analytics dashboard aimed at helping treasurers handle their cash.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced it has charged hedge fund advisor Steven Cohen with failure to supervise two senior employees. The charges also included failing to prevent the duo from insider trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission together with financial regulators of the member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) have established supervisory arrangements. This comes as part of a long-term strategy to improve the oversight of certain entities in the asset management industry that operate across national borders.

The newly released 2013 Responsible Investment Report highlights TIAA-CREF’s responsible investment strategies throughout the asset classes in which it invests. The report also points out the company’s socially responsible investing portfolios.