Wall Street banks pin hopes on mutual funds

FACING challenges on all fronts, Wall Street banks are pinning some of their hopes on a relatively simple business opportunity: creating mutual funds for ordinary savers.

Over the past few years, an expanding line of mutual funds created by the likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase has been drawing billions of dollars from investors looking to earn a good return on their retirement money. For the banks, the fees that the funds generate have been among the few consistent bright spots of growth in a time of retrenchment on Wall Street.

There is, though, one big problem with all the growth: History has not shown these banks to be particularly good at managing mutual funds, and their clients have paid the cost.