Having experienced a messy meltdown from its exposure to junk bonds, American Express Co.'s financial planning unit seems to have developed a taste for a more plain-vanilla approach to risk management.
Stung by the painful sale and write-downs of junk bonds during the first half of the year, which amounted to more than $1 billion, American Express Financial Advisors in Minneapolis has brought in a risk management specialist. Steve Lobo, the new vice president of investment management risk, comes to American Express from Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, where he served as a senior vice president in the company's treasury department.
The financial planning unit is still searching for a chief financial officer following the July departure of Stuart Sedlacek.
In addition to Mr. Lobo, the adviser unit has also added a chief marketing officer to help sweeten the image of AmEx's proprietary mutual funds. Claire Huang, who moves over from her job as worldwide head of marketing for the American Express Travelers Cheques, had previously led the battle to help ice cream maker Haagen-Dazs compete with rival Ben & Jerry's.
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Weisel word not being kept
Thomas Weisel Partners, the firm that helped form Scudder Weisel Partners in January then folded it in March, is completing another about-face, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The securities firm boasted that it was hiring employees as its rivals were firing them. It more than doubled in size last year, to 845, from 400. Now it is cutting 70 jobs, mostly in investment banking. In an earlier Chronicle article, Weisel's chief operating officer, Blake Jorgenson, said the down market was a time to "smother clients with attention."
Japanese broker gets in the swing
With the Nikkei Dow bobbing off its 17-year low, Nikko Securities Co. of Tokyo is looking to rainy Seattle for its sunshine. The firm will feature Seattle Mariners' rookie sensation Ichiro Suzuki in its advertisements. The brokerage firm is renaming itself Nikko Cordial Group as of Oct. 1 under a new holding company, and it hopes the Japanese baseball hero projects a fresh image.
NASAA or NASA?
A website simulator that recreates the thrills and perils of online investing may not have the wow-effect of flight simulators, but the experience could keep investors from hitting unexpected turbulence.
That's the goal of the North American Securities Administrators Association, which last week launched its revamped Investing Online Resource Center website - investing-online.org - complete with a new investor simulator center. The simulators allow investors to experience trading on margin and placing market and limit orders, as well as an Internet stock-hype scheme. Charles Schwab & Co., Datek Online, SiebertNet, FOLIOfn and Patagon USA served as volunteer content advisers and plan to offer links to the site.
Deborah Bortner, president of NASAA, which represents securities regulators from the 50 states and Canada's provinces, says that even investors using a financial adviser should try the site.
