House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank called yesterday for creating an optional federal charter for life insurance companies.
The nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs.
Sales of fixed annuities climbed to $107 billion last year, up 60% from 2007, according to the Beacon Research Fixed Annuity Premium Study.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s securities division asked wants to revoke the license of a brokerage firm which served as a feeder fund for the investment firm of accused swindler Bernard Madoff.
Insurers’ delay in paying out claims was the most common complaint from consumers last year, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Fiserv Inc. served as custodian for the self-directed IRAs of about 800 people who invested with Bernard Madoff.
Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. is among the four suitors expected to put in a bid for American International Group Inc.’s broker-dealer businesses by the end of the month, according to The Deal.
Consumer borrowing rose unexpectedly in January after three months of declines.
Captrust Financial Advisors of Raleigh, N.C., has lured Mark A. Davis, a 17-year-veteran of the retirement industry, to anchor the firm’s first West Coast office.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. has created the Office of the Whistleblower to expedite the review of “high-risk” tips.
The majority of executives at middle-market firms expect the financial crisis will bottom out within the next year, according to a survey released today by CIT Group.
The Phoenix Cos. Inc. said that it overstated its 2008 losses by $46 million as a result of an error in accounting for income taxes.
Corporate giving is on the chopping block this year, according to a survey of 158 companies conducted by The Conference Board.
Aviva PLC, Europe’s biggest provider of life insurance products, posted a loss of $995 million for 2008, down from a profit of $2.98 billion in 2007.
Fidelity Investments said its intermediary businesses — those that serve broker-dealers, banks, insurers, registered investment advisers and other institutional clients — set records last year.
The number of new jobless claims and the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits both dropped unexpectedly last week, though they remain at elevated levels.
General Motors Corp.'s auditors have raised "substantial doubt" about the troubled automaker's ability to continue operations, and the company said it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if it can't execute a huge restructuring plan.
Legg Mason Inc. said Thursday it will record a $610 million charge to reflect elimination of exposure to risky structured investment vehicles in its money market accounts.
