Integrity ResearchWatch

CCAs for Fixed Income?

New York -- A recent article in Advanced Trading makes the argument that there will be increasing demand from buy-side clients for commission sharing agreements (CSAs or CCAs) in fixed income, as well as other asset classes such as options and futures. As more asset managers now look holistically across ...

Bank of America beefs up Research Team

Bank of America announced the hiring of nine senior analysts on Monday for its Equity Research platform. The analysts cover a diverse set sectors including: restaurants, medical devices, information technology, specialty finance, metals & mining, healthcare, media, managed care, and applications software. The analysts have been hired from ...

SEC’s Fall Fashion–No Shorts

New York – News that the SEC is considering the implementation of stiffer rules on short selling is not really a surprise. The fact that the rules are temporary and apply to a subset of stocks should be. Clearly, the SEC is seeking to specifically target short sellers in the ...

Accessing Africa’s Markets

Funds flows and investor interest in Africa have increased in recent years, but Africa remains a frontier market for investors. Given the narrowness and illiquidity of most African securities markets, institutional investors are approaching the market with caution. While investors can obtain partial exposure to African markets through global, emerging ...

6 Months to Forget…

New York—Hedge funds have had a bad first half, down .75% year to date according to Hedge Fund Research Inc (HFRI). Hennessee Group LLC has them down .85% YTD. The Greenwich hedge fund index was down 0.1% for the year-to-date through June. According to HFRI it was the ...

My Broker Made Me Do It…

New York—A recent survey of compliance officers at SEC-registered investment advisors shows continuing confusion about the topic of soft dollars. Two years have passed since the SEC clarified that the use of bundled commissions to purchase broker/dealer research is a form of soft dollars, yet distinctions are still ...

Goldman Invests in JL McGregor

NY—JL McGregor & Co., a Bejing-based industry consulting firm, announced today that Goldman Sachs made a minority investment in the firm which various sources reported as $7 million. JL McGregor will also become part of the Goldman’s Hudson Street platform, which markets alternative research to Goldman’s clients. JL ...

Shortcomings in Major Rating Firms

New York- A report released last Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed deficiencies in the credit-rating practices of the three major rating agencies, which agreed to implement the SEC’s recommendations in an effort to ensure the credibility of their ratings. The SEC report identified issues related to ...

Boenning & Scattergood building Financial Analytical Team

New York – Boenning & Scattergood announced this week that it had increased its research coverage by hiring Matt Schultheis. Matt, who is from Ferris Baker Watts, will help build out the coverage of the banks, specialty finance and REITs at Boenning . Boenning & Scattergood is a regional ...

Those That Can, Invest

New York—Last week we profiled a money manager who has become a research provider, now we have a researcher going the other way—Marty Fridson of FridsonVision LLC has set up an asset management boutique backed by BNP Paribas Investment Partners. The new firm, Fridson Investment Advisors, will specialize in ...