Fidelity Gets Approval to Operate S

Mutual fund giant Fidelity won permission from the Office of Thrift Supervision to operate a savings bank that will offer personal trust services to customers. Fidelity will become the latest in a string of companies to obtain new federal savings and loan charters in recent months. Fidelity already engages in corporate and personal trust business through its Fidelity Management Trust Co. subsidiary. The new Fidelity Personal Trust Co. would be based in Boston, where the parent company is, and would offer services nationwide such as acting as an investment advisor or custodian of trust funds or property held in trust, executing wills and acting as guardian of an estate or trustee of an IRA account. The OTS required that at least 40% of the savings bank’s directors be individuals who are not Fidelity officials or employees. The move comes as Congress edges toward passing sweeping legislation to rewrite financial services laws.