When Ben Marks set up shop as an independent registered investment adviser in November, he wasn't ready to give up the commissions that helped support him for more than a quarter century at large brokerage firms.
Like businesses across the financial services industry, clearing firms are feeling the pressure and the strain from the historic market downturn. It is a difficult and competitive business environment for the firms, which are key partners to broker-dealers, clearing and settling transactions for them and their representatives.
Recent raiding at broker-dealers has sparked ugly and bitter feuds and led to significant damage awards, and financial industry attorneys and experts see more cases in the offing.
Investors should prepare for a roller-coaster ride for the rest of the year as equity markets struggle to make headway.
Draft legislation that would give the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to require brokers who give investment advice to act as fiduciaries was sent to Capitol Hill today by the Treasury Department.
Confidence among U.S. consumers this month fell to the lowest level since March, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment.
The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence in regard to economic conditions improved during the second quarter, jumping to 55, from 30 the previous quarter.
Ross Mandell, chief executive of Sky Capital Holdings Ltd. of New York, and five other individuals turned themselves in to the FBI this morning and will be charged with securities fraud, according to published reports.
World stock markets fell while oil prices slipped again Wednesday amid mounting worries about the speed of any global economic recovery just as the U.S. second-quarter earnings kicks off.
Morgan Stanley last month suffered a $1 million loss in an arbitration case charging that the firm had “blindsided” a small regional broker-dealer, Strand Atkinson Williams & York Inc., “by a swift and crippling raid” of senior management and top-producing brokers.
Investors sent stocks falling as they wait for signals about where the economy is headed.
Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank, said Monday that its second quarter net income will be "slightly positive" thanks to its corporate and investment banking units.
European stock markets rose modestly today following late day-before gains on Wall Street — but the fifth straight retreat on Japan's main Nikkei index provided ample evidence that investor sentiment remains extremely fragile.
Oswald Grubel, who took over as UBS's chief executive officer in February, has elected not to sell the company's wealth management business here, despite speculation in recent months that he might offload this business.
