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Five Years Since the 2008 Economic Collapse RBC Wealth Management CEO John Taft Publishes Commentary

Paper Examines Three Key Questions

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Sept. 11, 2013) – September 16, 2008 marks the five-year anniversary of the Reserve Primary Fund, a money market fund, which broke the buck. On that day many investors, including RBC Wealth Management clients, could not withdraw their money from this supposedly safe “cash-like” investment vehicle. Over the past five years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been working on structural reforms to ensure that a similar money market fund collapse doesn’t happen again. This is just one example of hundreds of new laws, rules and regulations that have been put into place since the financial crisis – many of them designed to increase protections for individual investors.

RBC Wealth Management-U.S. CEO John G. Taft recently authored a commentary, “Five Years After We Broke the Buck—Are We Better Off?” In the paper, also published in Private Wealth, he discusses the five-year anniversary of one of the key events that contributed to the financial crisis, about the progress being made to help create financial markets that are safer, sounder and more secure for our clients -- and about what more still remains to be done. The commentary also examines what has been put in place to protect investors and addresses fundamental issues with the ethical underpinnings of our financial system.

“As a leading firm in the financial services industry, we have an opportunity to use our reputation as responsible stewards to help our clients once again believe that the financial system and financial markets can operate fairly for all parties,” said Taft. “Only when our clients regain their faith in financial markets do we have a shot at restoring economic growth to pre-crisis levels – something this country, and the world, desperately needs.”

The experience Taft had helping clients manage the fallout from the Reserve Fund’s failure led him to write the critically-acclaimed book, “Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street.” The book looks at the 2008 financial crisis and Taft’s conviction that service and stewardship can be an answer to minimizing future financial crises and societal problems.

Taft also recently premiered as a LinkedIn® Influencer on the popular social networking website. Taft joins an elite group of approximately 250 top professionals who regularly share their insights with the more than 225 million LinkedIn members.

About RBC Wealth Management – U.S.
In the United States, RBC Wealth Management operates as a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC. Founded in 1909, RBC Capital Markets, LLC. is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, and other major securities exchanges. RBC Wealth Management has more than $250 billion of assets under administration and nearly 2,000 financial advisors operating in 200 locations in 42 states. Recently RBC Wealth Management was ranked “Highest in Investor Satisfaction With Full Service Brokerage Firms” in the J.D. Power & Associates 2013 Full Service Investor Satisfaction StudySM. For more information, visit jdpower.com.

For more information please contact:
Jonell Lundquist, RBC Wealth Management, 612-371-2239, jonell.lundquist@rbc.com 

Important disclosure information about Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and RBC Capital Markets, LLC (opens new window)

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