Morningstar announced Thursday is has acquired Fundamental Data Ltd. of the UK, a closed-end fund data provider based in London, for $19 million, subject to post-closing adjustments.

Following Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, the latter’s chairman and chief executive officer, John Thain, will reportedly remain with the merged entity as head of global banking, securities and wealth management.

When Wachovia Corp. completes the sale of its banking operation to Citigroup Inc., it plans to remain a public company with two main subsidiaries—Wachovia Securities, the nation's third-largest brokerage, and its proprietary investment arm, Evergreen Asset Management.

Evergreen Investments announced Tuesday that its parent, Wachovia Corp., will purchase Lehman Brothers debt held in three of its money market mutual funds: the Evergreen Money Market Fund, Evergreen Institutional Money Market Fund and Evergreen Prime Cash Management Fund.

Private equity firms Bain Capital Partners and Hellman & Friedman acquired Neuberger Berman Monday for $2.15 billion, with the two firms holding equal positions in Neuberger, the firm’s portfolio managers given a “significant stake” and the deal expected to close early next year.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer of TCW Group, ticked off a host of cataclysmic forecasts for the financial services industry in a client conference call Wednesday that he titled “No Market for Old Men,” MarketWatch reports.

John Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, said the reaction of his firm’s “thundering herd” of more than 16,000 financial advisers to the Bank of America sale has been almost 100% positive.

With Japanese households worth more than $14 trillion, and half of that in cash or postal accounts, Manulife Financial Corp. has decided to enter the nation’s mutual fund market.

Anxious to do business in the world’s third-largest economy, where the population is aging, The Hartford is expanding into Germany.

Scotiabank has agreed to pay $15 million to acquire a 33% interest in a new mutual fund company that is being formed under the auspices of Bank of Beijing.

The chairman of Credit Suisse Group's alternative investments business said that his unit plans an international expansion for the recently acquired Asset Management Finance Corp., using joint ventures to enter new regions and sectors.Chairman Brian Finn said that by early next year Credit Suisse needs to put some Asset Management Finance executives internationally in cities like London or Zurich and eventually in Asia, possibly in Singapore or Hong Kong.He discussed the plans in an interview last week, after the Zurich firm bought 80% of the New York investment manager from National Bank Financial of Canada for $384 million of stock.Finn said that he hopes to have some international customers for Asset Management Finance by late next year."We think that there is a big global opportunity," Finn said. "We have developed a lot of joint ventures in Latin America, China, and the Middle East, but as a general matter as we look at investment managers in the U.S., we think the next few deals will be in more-developed markets."

Credit Suisse Group announced it was acquiring a majority interest in Asset Management Finance Corp. of New York from National Bank Financial of Canada.

Citigroup plans to revamp its capital markets business under its investment-banking arm.

The chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission, Jun Kwang-woo, spoke out Monday about last week's reports that state-controlled Korea Development Bank was possibly interested in buying Lehman Brothers.

U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers is considering shedding part or all of its money management division in order to raise capital and ease real estate losses, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Genworth Financial in Richmond, Va., has launched a new wealth management division, Genworth Financial Wealth Management. The launch completes the integration of two Genworth companies: AssetMark Investment Services, which it acquired in October of 2006, and Genworth Financial Asset Management.

FolioDynamix, a provider of unified managed accounts technology and services, has acquired SunGard Advisory Technologies, which provides investment management and wealth management platform solutions to financial services organizations nationwide, including brokerage firms, RIAs, asset management firms and banks.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. of Columbus, Ohio, said it has agreed to buy all of the outstanding publicly held class A common stock of Nationwide Financial Services Inc.

Investment firms will continue to hone their specialties and look to raise capital through mergers and acquisitions throughout the rest of the year, according to a report by Jefferies Putnam Lovell.

Several struggling banks desperate for capital are now considering selling their money-management units, according to The Wall Street Journal.