Monday’s Headlines: A New Way to Keep Employees in Shape Without Using a Gym

For years, companies have tried to interest employees in wellness activities. The motives are not altogether altruistic. Healthy employees mean lower health insurance costs and productive workers.

Some companies have tried installing gyms, but research shows that only a quarter of employers on average bother to join. So in recent years, they’ve come up with a new strategy that entices employees to work out without changing out of their regular work clothes, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The approach is subtle. At Humana Inc., for example, the health insurer has installed indoor walking tracks, attractive stairwells designed to get employees to skip the elevator and treadmills that double as work stations.

Walking tracks have become popular with many companies because they are inexpensive to install.

TOPS Club Inc., a Milwaukee non-profit that sets up weight-loss chapters in communities and workplaces, turned one of its square-shaped hallways into a walking track by calculating the number of laps in a mile and then taping some posters to the wall. The cost of the project was just a few dollars to print the posters.

Other News:

A prominent Wall Street hedge fund manager who invested his clients’ money with Bernie Madoff has agreed to pay $405 million to settle a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General. [New York Times]

The association of the world’s central banks said in its annual report that many international banks remain burdened by investor skepticism about future earnings. [DealBook]

Diego di Giorgio, an executive with Goldman Sachs, is expected to join the London office of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in a senior role. [Wall Street Journal]

JPMorgan Chase plans to improve risk management of the division that recently racked more than $2 billion in trading losses. [Wall Street Journal]

The Spanish government has asked the Eurogroup for up to $77 billion in financial aid for its banking sector. [CNN Money]

Private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. has secured more than $3 billion for its second Asia-focused private equity fund. [Fortune]

Top U.S. and European bankers have enjoyed double digit pay raises averaging 12 percent. [Financial Times]

Earnings warnings from key U.S. companies are casting a shadow over the outlook for equities. [Financial Times]

Gus Sauter, chief investment officer of the Vanguard Group, will retire at the end of the year. [InvestmentNews]

Bank of America Corp. has eliminated some managers at a unit catering to wealthy families. [InvestmentNews]

Kieran Goodwin, former head trader of King Street Capital Management, will go into business and launch a hedge fund with an initial capacity of $500 million in October. [FinAlternatives]