By Chris Taylor NEW YORK (Reuters) - If there is a stock market superhero these days, it is the humble dividend. The companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index doled out a record $281.5 billion in dividends in 2012, and payouts in 2013 are slated to rise even higher.

By Suzanne Barlyn (Reuters) - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is cautioning brokerage firms about the way they market some real estate investment trusts after a review by the Wall Street watchdog revealed problems, according to a regulatory notice.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's finance minister sees no chance of renegotiating a failed bilateral deal with Switzerland that would have sought to sweep Swiss accounts clean of German tax dodgers, even after the country's foreign minister renewed his calls for a second try. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying on Saturday Switzerland would not be able to retroactively change laws to lift tax secrecy, one of the reasons for Germany's opposition to block the deal last year.

OTTAWA - The Conservatives are beefing up the tools used to go after tax cheats in the hopes of recovering billions in lost revenue. A team of six to 10 bureaucrats will be assigned to work only on pinpointing tax evaders and their efforts will be backed by $30 million over the next five years for new technology and other tools required for the hunt. "Anyone trying to hide large sums of money offshore should know this — they should declare all their assets now before the agency comes after them," Revenue Minister Gail Shea said Wednesday.