Money Management Executive Latest News

Former New York Stock Exchange Chief Dick Grasso pressured a specialist firm to purchase more shares of American International Group after the insurance company’s head complained about the stock’s volatility, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday

John Hancock Financial Services has accepted a stock exchange purchase offer from Manulife Financial Services, with the merged company valued at $25.6 billion. The sale represents an 18.5% premium over Friday’s closing price for John Hancock common shares.

Safeco has announced plans to reorganize, selling its Life & Investments unit. The decision stems from a desire to increase profitability and focus on the property and casualty (P&C) business, said Mike McGavick, president and CEO.

Janus has told regulators it is unable to file the annual reports on its Advisor Series on time due to delays related to questions raised by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s probe into its trades with hedge fund Canary Capital Partners.

Smith Barney fired a New Jersey broker for canceling fund trades as late as 15 minutes after the market’s close, Reuters reports, citing an internal company memo.

The lawsuit brought by former employees against Kenneth Lay, Enron Corp.’s former chairman, and Northern Trust, the firm’s pension plan administrator, will be allowed to move ahead, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

At least a dozen investment portfolio managers for Morgan Stanley Investment Management on Tuesday were terminated from their posts, Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Connie Kain said.

China will outpace its fellow Asian countries and be the region’s fastest-growing economy in 2004, according to survey results just announced.

Prudential Securities has just fired 12 in its Boston, Garden City, N.Y., and Manhattan offices following a probe by Massachusetts regulators into short-term mutual fund trades. Besides 10 brokers, two managers, of the Boston and Garden City offices, have reportedly been asked to resign.

Janus permitted 12 of its clients to rapidly trade funds to time the market, according to the results of a Janus internal review released Tuesday. The news caused the company’s stock to rise as much as 7%.