JPMorgan Chase & Co is delaying a plan to move some wealth management clients to a self-directed platform as the bank awaits word on whether US President Donald Trump’s administration will rewrite or scrap higher standards for brokers.
The bank had told some customers they would be transferred this month to a system letting them manage their own retirement accounts as the US Department of Labor prepared to enact the so-called fiduciary rule, which seeks to ensure advisers pitch products in savers’ best interests.
However, in a follow-up letter to clients this week, the New York-based bank said that it is planning to hold off on the changes.
Meanwhile, “your financial adviser can continue to provide you with investment guidance and assist with any service requests you may have on this account,” the firm wrote, according to a copy of a letter obtained by reporters.
A company spokesman did not respond to a message seeking comment outside normal business hours.
Broadly, the pending Labor Department rule says advisers handling retirement accounts must give advice in a client’s best interest and should not earn more than reasonable compensation.
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive memorandum directing the regulator to review the measure, a move that has left its fate in limbo.
The rule had been set to take effect this week, but the Labor Department moved to extend a deadline for compliance by two months as it continues the examination.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained