Financial services firms, advisors and brokers can get themselves caught in their own tracks on social media, worrying excessively about SEC rules on disclosures, marketing and communication, but Rajib Chanda, a partner with the Boston-based Ropes & Gray regulatory law firm, says the guidance out there is actually “pretty flexible.”

Advisors may still feel a bit awkward as well as worried about compliance when they use social media, but they’re definitely using it to build their brands and businesses, according to a new SourceMedia study.

State Street Corporation unveiled the State Street Fund Insights Valuation Toolkit to provide timely industry insights for fund managers and directors and help them better manage data.

If an industry-wide fiduciary standard is adopted, what might the practicalities of meeting that standard be? Citi’s financial services unit has some possible technology-based answers to this question.

ING has released a new mobile application that allows ING retirement plan participants to access and manage their retirement plan account information in transit.

CME Group said it will start offering “one-pot” margining of positions in interest-rate swaps and futures, beginning May 7.

Clients of RidgeWorth Investments will now be able to access a variety of functions and data from their investment accounts thanks to a new application available for the iPad.

The San Francisco company has not made it easy for fund families to work through its online platform, featuring five incompatible sites. That's about to change, with an Investment Manager Gateway.

The heart – and brains – of a Wall Street firm used to be the great sales trader, said Matthew Andresen, co-CEO of Headland Technologies. Now, that value increasingly is moving into machines.

“Before allowing our reps to use social media, we needed a technology solution to handle our complex regulatory needs,” says Chad Oppedal, assistant director of compliance for the Principal Financial Group.

Morningstar, Inc. has launched a new alternative investments center as part of several enhancements to MorningstarAdvisor.com, a free website that provides advisors with practice management information, investment trends, and industry insights.

SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro told a financial services subcommittee of the House of Representatives that the federal regulator intends to spend $100 million of its $1.6 billion requested budget for fiscal 2013 on information systems and another $50 million on modernizing the EDGAR stock information database and www.sec.gov, its public website.

Investment Technology Group said it released an algorithm that will capture matching orders in the opening auctions of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.

Goldman Sachs said it expanded its suite of algorithms for electronic trading in Brazil, as a part of a “firm-wide focus’’ on the South America market.

Many investors put off making final IRA contributions until the last minute, and now Fidelity Investments has an app for that.

The first 725,000 Smith Barney customer accounts moved over to a fresh Morgan Stanley system over the President's Day Weekend. Algo-driven, personalized training of financial advisors and client support personnel is key to the move of records involving nearly $1 trillion in assets.

Wedbush Securities has launched a trading platform provider that the firm says will dramatically speed up trades for fund managers and other institutional investors, as well as give them better control over their transaction costs.

Portfolio management and accounting software supplier Tradar said it is working with financial data aggregation and reporting software supplier Nedelma to launch a mobile portfolio reporting app that can be accessed via the iPad and other tablets.

Wells Fargo & Company will offer a new mobile application for its brokers in 2012 to address a growing need for new advisor tools in digital media.

Mutual fund firms such as Vanguard and Fidelity Investments are finding themselves at the top of the Kasina Social Media Index.