Matt Ackermann

The number of exchange-traded funds has surged the past few years, bringing a unique business opportunity to Russell Indexes in Tacoma.

The Valley Forge, Pa., mutual fund giant plans to introduce 19 exchange-traded funds in an effort to offer a wider array of low-cost stock and bond options. The firm will also launch ETF shares of its flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. announced Tuesday that it has started a unit to clear futures and derivatives trades.

Putnam Investments plans to continue to aggressively expand its array of products even as market volatility has forced some competitors to retrench.

Investor confidence has declined, but concerns over the European economy appear to be easing, a monthly Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of fund managers found.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. on Tuesday named Clayton G. Deutsch to succeed Timothy L. Vaill as chief executive officer and president as of July 31.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has relaunched a retirement services platform for companies with fewer than 100 employees.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management hopes to increase sales this year by pitching its custody services to registered investment advisers.

Sun Life Financial Inc. of Toronto has established a proprietary mutual fund company in Canada.

As markets continued to rise in April, assets held in U.S. exchange-traded funds increased for the third consecutive month.

The suit alleges that Ivy Asset Management LLC, its former chief executive officer, Lawrence Simon, and its former chief investment officer, Howard Wohl, deliberately "kept clients in the dark about damaging financial information about Madoff so Ivy could bring in millions in advisory fees."

To attract more assets, kaChing, an online provider that connects investment managers with investors, has launched a platform for small and midsize registered investment advisers.

Keeping up with its competitors, Vanguard Group announced Tuesday that it has reduced commissions associated with its exchange-traded funds and stock trades.

Investor confidence among millionaires rose to its highest level in more than two years as optimism about the economy increased.

BlackRock Inc. said Monday that its profit quintupled in the first quarter, its first full period of earnings since buying Barclays Global Investors for $13.5 billion.

If it means working longer, affluent investors are prepared to do so to alleviate their concerns about retirement savings and the rising costs of health care.

The country's two largest custody banks said they will keep looking for acquisitions, of whatever size, as they wait for higher interest rates to spur organic growth.

In line with its own worst-case-scenario forecast, Charles Schwab Corp. reported a significant decline in first-quarter earnings due in part to a 19% decline in trading revenue.

Retirement nest eggs are climbing back after suffering during the recession. Assets held in retirement accounts rose 18% from a year earlier, to $9.3 trillion at Dec. 31, according to a report Tuesday by Spectrem Group, a Chicago research firm.

As major market indexes rose in March, so, too, did exchange-traded-fund assets under management. Monthly data from State Street Global Advisors, released last week, said assets held in U.S. exchange-traded funds rose 7.2% from a month earlier, to $806 billion.