Wealth management

Nationwide Financial Services Inc. said its fourth-quarter earnings declined 53% from a year earlier, to $74.2 million, or 52 cents a share, because of investment losses and the planned sale of a stake in a distribution business.

State Street Corp. and Boston Financial Data Services, its joint venture with DST Systems Inc. that provides transfer agency services, were selected to provide investment services to Fifth Third Funds.

Uruguay's central bank has selected Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s global asset servicing arm as the global custodian for the bank's $4.5 billion investment portfolio.

Northern Trust Corp. said it has expanded its global fund services team to address a growing demand for middle- and back-office services for fund complexes and investment management clients.

JPMorgan Private Bank promoted Rebecca Patterson to global head of foreign exchange.

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PowerShares Capital Management LLC, a Chicago exchange-traded fund company, has announced plans to start a PowerShares India Portfolio.

Dreyfus Corp., the New York mutual fund arm of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., said Thursday that Thomas Eggers will retire March 31 as its president and chief executive officer.

Confidence among affluent investors has dropped to its all-time lowest level as measured by the Spectrem Group's four-year-old Affluent Investor Index, which tumbled 13 points in January.

More investment managers are starting long-short funds with hedge fund-like properties, showing that financial services firms have not given up on developing new products in spite of difficult market conditions and criticism from some quarters.

Attorneys for Bank of New York Mellon Corp. filed a motion in a Russian court Wednesday claiming that a lawyer for the Russian customs service falsified evidence in a $22.5 billion lawsuit against the company.

The U.S. division of Sun Life Financial Inc. of Toronto said that it plans to consolidate its distribution arm and that Kevin Hart, the president of Sun Life Financial Distributors Inc., will leave March 31.

The Boston money manger MFS Investment Management has launched the MFS Diversified Target Return Fund.

ING Funds reappointed Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as the global custodian for about $117 billion of assets.

SEI Investments announced that is has signed its first U.S. banks for its holistic global wealth services platform after initially struggling to gain a foothold in offering wealth management tools to financial services firms in the United States.

Columbia Management, a Boston wealth management unit of Bank of America Corp., announced several executive changes Tuesday in its distribution and portfolio management operations.

The percentage of brokers and advisers likely to consider changing employers in the next 12 months rose 4 percentage points last year, to 9%, according to a study sponsored by National Financial Services LLC, Fidelity Investments' clearing arm.

BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc. announced Monday it would acquire Joe Max Green/Insurance Concepts Insurance Agency Inc. of Nacogdoches, Tex.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s wealth management arm has opened an office in Tampa.

Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management hired Bill Seugling as a managing director and the head of investment advisory solutions.