September 2009
SPECIAL REPORT: THE BATTLE FOR WEALTH Lyle LaMothe (L), head of U.S. Advisory, and Mark Alexander, managing director, head of technology, operations and Broadcort clearing for global wealth and investment management, Merrill Lynch Wall Street Strikes Back Brokerage firms such as Merrill Lynch, RBC and Fiduciary Trust are confidently investing in data integration projects and financial planning, asset allocation, rebalancing, risk analytics and client performance tracking and reporting tools to attract and retain high-performing advisers and wealthy clients. Small Advisory Firms Look to Clouds, Aggregators Small wealth management firms are saving money with a new wave of hosted technology, theyŐre aggregating data with services such as ByAllAccounts and CorrectNet. State of the Merrill/BofA Union According to Merrill wealth management executives the merger with Bank of America is exceeding expectations. The New Wealth Management Landscape As investors change their habits, the large wirehouses face a host of new competitors in the wealth management field. The New Online Wealth Management Competitors Sites such as MarketRiders and FiLife come closer to providing the type of financial advice typically doled out by financial advisers. FOREIGN EXCHANGE Forex Trading Provider Gain Capital Overhauls IT Gain Capital has had to buy new networks, servers and software -- for the best of reasons: to accommodate a 50 to 60 percent increases in trade volume and spikes in the currency markets. INNOVATION Amidst the Gloom: Driving IT Infrastructure Innovation With growth projects on hold, J.P. Morgan CIO Guy Chiarello says, now is the time to invest in infrastructure, clean up IT operations and drive hard bargains with vendors. INTEGRATION Wells Fargo Tech Exec Discusses Wachovia Integration Much of the IT integration work still lies ahead in the closely watched acquisition. |
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FROM THE EDITOR Making Sense of the Jobless Recovery Even with advanced technology initiatives under way, many firms are taking a cautious approach to hiring during this long recovery. CLOSE-UP Central Clearing of Derivatives Could Help Prevent "Too Bigger to Fail" WS&T Editor-at-Large Ivy Schmerken spoke with Chris Edmonds, CEO of the International Derivatives Clearing Group, about the value of central clearing in the interest rate derivatives markets. ASSET MANGEMENT Investment Adviser ProfitScore Capital Management Promises Hedge Fund-Like Returns In a Separate Account Innovative quantitative advisory firm ProfitScore relies on multiple managers for index exposures while leveraging active mutual funds from inside a separate account. UPFRONT Professors Unveil Low-Cost Way to Diagnose Network Latency University of California, San Diego, and Purdue University computer scientists today presented a way of identifying data center network delays as short as tens of millionths of seconds. Shakeup of Wall StreetŐs Grid Vendors DataSynapse has been acquired by Tibco, Platform Computing has bought HP clustering technology, and grids are trying to become clouds. IBM, Omaha College to Offer Green IT Degree Big Blue and Metropolitan Community College to turn out techies who can design energy efficient data centers. Site Promises to Make Investing a Piece of Cake Cake Financial introduces an automated premium service to analyze customer holdings and identify potential asset allocation improvements. Do-It-Yourself Wealth Management Site, Mint.com, Adds Features The competition between full-service wealth management firms and self-service websites has been kicked up a notch. INDUSTRY VOICE The Five Cs of Counterparty Credit Risk In a punishing market for those who improperly handle risk, these tenets of credit risk management can be the difference between success and failure. PERSPECTIVES Regulators, Be Careful What You Wish For While some change may be necessary, regulators must remember that even the smallest shifts in policy can have wide-ranging and unpredictable effects on the markets. |