Matt Ackermann

SunTrust Banks Inc. plans to aggressively expand its unit providing private banking services to professional athletes and musicians.

Janus Capital Group Inc. announced Thursday that it has hired Richard M. Weil, the chief operating officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC, to be its chief executive officer.

Confidence among affluent investors rose in December but continues to lag levels of a few years ago, a survey found.

Vanguard Group announced it will pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing it of racial bias in its hiring practices.

Armed with its new name, RBC Global Asset Management is expecting double-digit growth in 2010, as it works more closely with its parent bank and other RBC asset managers to introduce new products.

Voyageur Asset Management Inc. of Minneapolis, which was sold to Royal Bank of Canada in 2008, announced Tuesday that its name is now RBC Global Asset Management Inc.

Lazard Asset Management LLC announced Tuesday that it has launched an actively managed mutual fund that focuses on infrastructure companies.

Morgan Stanley has promoted Jonathan Pruzan and Eric Bischof to global co-heads of its financial institutions group.

RS Investments of San Francisco on Monday announced the launch of three fixed-income funds, because of a growing appetite for more fixed-income investment options.

Responding to a spate of scams, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has issued an investor alert regarding "green energy" investments.

Vanguard Group distinguished itself this year despite — or perhaps because of — difficult market conditions.

Just a heads-up if you are a struggling bank that owns a mutual fund family — Bruce Crockett, the chairman of Invesco's Aim Funds, may have it in his sights.

Just a heads-up if you are a struggling bank that owns a mutual fund family — Bruce Crockett may have it in his sights.

The Lansing, Mich., subsidiary of Prudential PLC in London, said last week that it had promoted Laura Prieskorn, 41, to senior vice president and chief administrative officer, and J. Mark Clark, 49, to senior vice president and chief information officer.

The SEC alleged in a filing last week that Kurt B. Barton and Triton Financial LLC raised more than $8.4 million from about 90 investors by selling "investor units" in an affiliate, Triton Insurance, and telling investors that their money would be used to buy an insurance company.

State Street Corp. has agreed with Intesa Sanpaolo, a Milan banking company, to buy its securities services business for $1.87 billion in cash.

State Street Global Advisors launched a short-term corporate bond exchange-traded fund. The SPDR Barclays Capital Short Term Corporate Bond ETF, which has an annual expense ratio of 0.1245%, began trading Thursday on the NYSE Arca exchange.

Frank Froud, an executive vice president for Bank of New York Mellon, was promoted to head of client management for the U.S. Froud, who previously oversaw client management in Europe, is moving to New York for the new post. Hani Kablawi, who is also an executive vice president, will take over European client management.

Old Course Investment Partners LLC of Houston, which opened for business seven months ago, plans to double the size of its advisory staff and its assets under management, currently $250 million, in the next 12 months, said Blaine Douglas, one of its managing directors.

Northern Trust Corp. announced a series of personnel moves Thursday to improve its personal financial services for institutions and affluent individuals in the Midwest.