The bottom line

Target breach costs banks millions

Financial institutions’ expenses related to Target’s holiday data breach now exceed $200 million. Almost 22 million of the 40 million credit and debit cards compromised in the breach have been replaced, an effort that trade groups say has cost banks $172 million and credit unions another $30.6 million.

Associated Press

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Better returns with index funds

Almost 80 percent of actively managed funds fail to deliver better returns than simple index funds. An investor putting $3,000 a year for 40 years into a managed 401(k) fund with annual fees of 1.33 percent will have almost $160,000 less at age 65 than one getting equivalent returns on a low-cost index fund charging 0.08 percent.

TheAtlantic.com

Signet to buy Zale Corp.

Signet Jewelers, which operates stores in the U.S. and the U.K. under the brands Kay, Jared, H. Samuel, and Ernest Jones, said this week it plans to buy rival Zale Corp. and assume its debt for a total of $1.4 billion.

USA Today

China's risk to the global economy

Forty-six percent of portfolio managers say China’s slowing economy is the biggest risk to the global economy, according to a survey of 222 fund managers by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. That’s up from 37 percent in January and 26 percent in December.

WSJ.com

Expats renounce citizenship

Three thousand Americans turned in their passports last year, most of them expats renouncing their citizenship to avoid complicated tax filings. Experts blame new regulations—such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act—which require Americans to report foreign assets over $50,000 and foreign bank holdings that exceed $10,000.

CNN.com