Cherkasky: Marsh Will Keep Putnam

The top executive at Marsh & McLennan, the parent company to Putnam Investments, said the world's largest insurance broker has no intention of shedding its struggling fund group.

Boston-based Putnam, which lost more than $81 billion in assets during the scandal, still has negative inflows. Speculation has been swirling that Marsh might dump Putnam. But Marsh CEO Michael Cherkasky told Reuters during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that positive flows are on the horizon.

"The strategy is to keep Putnam, fix Putnam and operate Putnam over the short, medium and long-term," Cherkasky said. "It still has negative inflows1/4 we are hopeful by [fourth quarter 2006] that the flows will be positive."

Although Putnam continues to struggle building assets under management, its fund returns have improvement greatly. Cherkasky admitted that the public relations beating the firm took in 2003 still resonates today with investors.

"We're not sick anymore," he said, "but that doesn't mean we have returned to full health."

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