Wilmington Trust Corp., the banking, trust, and wealth management services company, reported an unexpected quarterly loss Friday due to higher loan loss provisions and impaired securities, masking improvements in its wealth advisory services and corporate client services businesses. Wilmington, which has about $56 billion in assets under management, reported a loss of $11.2 million, or 23 cents a share, narrower than a year-earlier loss of $68.5 million, or $1.02 a share, the company said. Analysts, however, had expected profit of 4 cents a share, according to Bloomberg.

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M onday, Feb. 1 Absolute Software Corp. reports.

R elatively mild weather this winter season is being blamed for the layoff of about 80 people at the Sifto Canada Corp. mine in Goderich, Ont., a major producer of highway de-icing salt. Communications manager Kelly Barton said Friday that several factors, including the weather and a lack of storage, forced the layoffs, which represent about a fifth of the mine’s work force.

President Barack Obama today signed an executive order setting up a new presidential board that will support financial products and services deemed beneficial to consumers. The Advisory Council on Financial Capability will consist of officials from the Treasury and Education departments and as many as 20 non-government presidential appointees, including financial service providers, consumers and educators, according to the order released by the White House.

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A t a friend’s birthday party recently, the conversation around the kitchen table turned to our RRSPs and the baskets of mutual funds they held. My friends lamented the declines in their portfolios, but were irked more by the management fees they were paying for the privilege of owning their shrinking investments. Studies have shown that Canadians pay among the highest management expense ratios (MERs) in the world, with fees for equity mutual funds at 2.5 per cent on average.