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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is the bank many Americans love to hate, but one group just plain loves it: its employees.
The firm’s employees are among the most fiercely loyal in the financial services industry, according to a survet by glassdoor.com, a career Web site. And Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein had the highest approval rating of any CEO in the financial sector. Get the full story »
Chicago-based Nuveen Investments Inc., which serves institutions and wealthy investors, said U.S. Bancorp will receive a 9.5 percent stake in the company and an $80 million cash payment in exchange for the long-term asset business of U.S. Bancorp’s FAF Advisors.
FAF, which manages $25 billion of long-term assets and is adviser of the First American Funds, will be combined with Nuveen Asset Management, which manages $75 billion in municipal fixed income assets and is adviser of the Nuveen funds. Get the full story »
Morningstar Inc. said on Wednesday that profit in the second quarter fell 12 percent on rising costs for compensation and other expenses.
Net income for the Chicago investment research company company fell to $18.0 million, or 36 cents per share, for the quarter, from $20.5 million, or 41 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $136.1 million, from $119.5 million for the year-earlier quarter, the company said. Revenue from acquisitions of $12.7 million helped drive the increase, along with more sales of software and data products. But total operating expenses also rose, including higher costs for salaries, sales and marketing. Get the full story »
Jeremy Grantham, the renowned money manager who reluctantly bought gold while “officially scared” at the beginning of the financial crisis a couple of years ago, wants nothing to do with gold now.
Rather, Grantham says investors can be prepared to get through inflation or deflation with blue chip stocks. Grantham told professional investors gathered in Chicago for the CFA Institute’s annual seminar, that the market’s highest quality stocks are cheap now.
People worried about inflation, “are picking looney stuff like gold,” Grantham said. “It has no value and is totally speculative.”
FirstMerit Bank, which over the past year has entered the Chicago market through three acquisitions, said it is continuing to keep its eyes open for deals, but that its main focus right now is integrating its operations. Get the full story »
Pritzker Realty Group, the Chicago-based real estate firm affiliated with the wealthy Pritzker family, formed a joint venture with the Bozzuto Group to invest in apartment buildings on the East Coast.
The venture, which has an initial capital commitment of $75 million, will focus on properties in the greater Baltimore-Washington area, as well as in the broader Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region.
“This partnership allows us to tap into Bozzuto’s market expertise to invest in multifamily developments,” said Penny Pritzker, CEO of the namesake company and one of the key business leaders in the Pritzker family empire. Get the full story »
The broadest shake-up in U.S. financial services law since the Great Depression will likely require the Securities and Exchange Commission to beef up its staff with 800 new positions, the SEC’s chief said in prepared remarks on Monday. Get the full story »
American International Group Inc. has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running securities fraud lawsuit led by three Ohio public pension funds, in one of the largest class-action settlements in U.S. history.
AIG would pay $175 million within 10 days of preliminary court approval of the settlement with a class of shareholders. The company may fund the remaining $550 million through one or more common stock offerings. Get the full story »
Raids at Credit Suisse’s private banking offices in Germany have been a success and may help identify bank staff in Switzerland as part of a tax evasion clampdown, German prosecutors said Friday.
This week’s raids were the latest steps in an international crackdown on suspected tax cheats in offshore centers that saw Swiss wealth management giant UBS agree to an hefty settlement in a bitter U.S. tax probe last year. Get the full story »
The Department of Labor on Friday will issue a long-awaited rule that would require retirement-plan providers to disclose the compensation they receive for their services.
Some companies supply this information, but the “interim final rule” will require all service providers that receive more than $1,000 to disclose it. The intent of the rule, which takes effect next summer, would be to help fiduciaries better assess “the reasonableness of compensation paid to plan service providers and any conflicts of interest that may impact a service provider’s performance.” Get the full story »
Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations of misleading investors.
Investors demonstrated an appetite for Illinois bonds Wednesday when the state went to market with a $900 million issue, but as expected, they extracted a higher yield because of the state’s dismal financial condition.
More than $2 billion in orders came in for the taxable Build America bond issue, a show of strong demand, said John Sinsheimer, the state’s director of capital markets. Overall, the bonds drew 93 investors, including 17 from overseas who bought about 29 percent of the issue. Get the full story »
From Smartmoney.com | USG stock jumped following a disclosure that billionaire Omaha investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has made a major investment stake.
No matter their income level, a significant number of U.S. workers are likely to struggle to meet basic expenses during retirement, a new study of baby boomers and “generation Xers” released on Tuesday shows.
Over 40 percent of people with the lowest incomes face prospects of depleted savings within 10 years after retirement, with that number climbing toward 60 percent after another decade, according to Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute. Get the full story »
