In the News

Brokerage practices draw criticism

1 min readWall Street firms may have led their own brokers to believe auction-rate securities were safer than they really were, by labeling them as cash investments and failing to warn brokers of their risks, according to customer records and interviews. By Beth Healy https://archive.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2008/06/17/brokerage_practices_draw_criticism/

Capital Advisors Pan Wants “​To Preserve The Sanctity of Money Funds”

1 min readAt last week’s Treasury Management Association of New England conference, Capital Advisors Group Director of Investment Research Lance Pan urged the audience of corporate treasurers and money fund professionals attending his “Check-Up on Institutional Money Market Funds Presentation to, “preserve the sanctity” of the money fund. “It’s truly a great product,” he said. Pan discussed…

The New Treasury Diet: Keep It Simple

10 min readRussell Paquette liked auction-rate securities (ARS) as much as the next treasurer. At Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) in Kent, Wash., he had been particularly attracted to those backed by student loans. “They were AAA-rated, over-collateralized by 30% and roughly 97% guaranteed by the Department of Education,” the REI treasurer points out. But when asset-backed investments…

ECNs To The Rescue

4 min readInvestors stuck with unwanted auction rate securities may soon find a way out. Independent trading networks are stepping in where Wall Street’s major banks fled, creating secondary markets for trading these securities, once viewed by wealthy individuals and other investors as being as good as cash. Lately, however, they have become about as illiquid as…