WASHINGTON—The Obama administration on Wednesday rolled out a long-anticipated new rule aimed at transforming the way the financial industry delivers retirement-savings advice—but offered significant concessions to critics that some brokerages and asset managers welcomed. The fiduciary rule is aimed at curbing billions of dollars in fees paid annually by small savers who transfer money out of 401(k)s—which are required to operate in their best interests—and into individual retirement accounts, which aren’t currently bound by such protections.

New technology in the financial industry is changing how people manage their finances. This merger of financial services with technology, referred to as “fintech,” is a booming industry. In 2014 alone, technology-focused venture capital firms invested $12.2 billion in fintech startups, a threefold increase over the previous year. Startups are not the only companies racing to join the industry. Heavyweights in the financial services industry, such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, are also adopting fintech services...

The “democratization of investment” in historically closed industries have been the buzzwords of choice since the JOBS Act was signed into to law in 2012. But only since March 25, 2015, when the SEC voted to adopt the proposed rules implementing Title IV, was access truly granted to all. Obama Signs the JOBS Act with Steve CaseTitle IV effectively amended Regulation A and created the framework for the new Regulation A, which is known in the crowdfunding industry as “Reg A+"...

The FSB, made up of central bankers, regulators and finance ministry officials from the Group of 20 economies, is looking at fintech partly in response to uncertainty over whether it will "disrupt" traditional banking. Some big investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, are already investing heavily in fintech to avoid missing out. Analysts at Citi said this month that investment in fintech had grown from $1.8 billion in 2010 to $19 billion last year, mostly in payments systems. Citi said the "tipping point" for disruption (for banks) was not far away in the United States and Europe...

Columbus, OH - Despite a surprising slowdown in household growth at the end of 2015, the outlook for the U.S. housing market remains upbeat thanks to solid housing demand driven by continued job growth and incipient wage gains. Positive U.S. economic activity continues to support the housing market, which shows little chance of a downturn in the next year, according to the latest housing market barometer released today by Nationwide, a leading insurance and financial services organization.

"Over the past decade or so, we have continued to increase our investments and commitment to the long-term future of downtown Cleveland," Gilbert said in a news release. "This latest acquisition is strategically connected to our other significant Cleveland investments. ... The Avenue shops provide us with a unique opportunity to build upon the connectivity to our other downtown investments and create a one-of-a-kind urban shopping, dining and entertainment destination that will make all Clevelanders proud."

Borrowing a Cleveland Metroparks executive to manage a newly re-energized Public Square was a necessary first step to ensure the 10-acre heart of the city comes to life after its June 1 reopening. But the loan by Cleveland Metroparks of its chief marketing officer, Sanaa Julien, to the Group Plan Commission is only a short-term solution, and the square’s planners have yet to devise a permanent plan to guarantee the area doesn’t return to its neglected past. Last week, the Group Plan Commission, or GPC...

The RECF (real estate crowdfunding) community has been keenly interested in finding creative ways to use the new Regulation A+ that came into effect earlier last year. However, not all filings have been successful or made much business sense. Last year, I wrote about Groundfloor’s Reg A+ filing which was the first A+ filing out the door, but made little business or strategy sense. Since then, Washington D.C.-based Fundrise began selling securities under its recently approved Regulation A+ filing, which they cleverly termed an e-REIT.

The former chief financial officer and treasurer of Fundrise, the real estate crowdfunding start-up, says he was terminated by the company after alerting its chief executive to what he called “serious fraudulent behavior” and said the company’s assertion that he had tried to extort it for more than $1 million was baseless. Michael S. McCord’s allegations came in response to two public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, in which Fundrise alerted investors that it had terminated its chief financial officer and treasurer of nearly two years...

Top banking executives fear that up to a quarter of their business could be at risk from emerging fintech firms, according to research conducted by PwC. The report notes that information on FinTech is somewhat “dispersed and obscure,” which can make data synthesizing challenging. PwC’s findings are based on DeNovo insights and the views of survey participants, highlighting key trends that will enhance customer experience, self-directed services, sophisticated data analytics and cyber security.