WEEK IN REVIEW

We’re counting on accountants

Dull old Big Six, Five, Four or Whatever accounting firms provided lots of action.

The European Commission approved the merger of Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse, clearing the way for joint operations to begin July 1.

Cendant Corp. fired Ernst & Young LLP as accountant for its CUC units after what were called “accounting irregularities” led to a $100 million downward rejiggering of 1997 profits. Deloitte & Touche LLP, already crunching numbers for its HFS unit, will take over the whole schmear.

And, in more bad news, KPMG Peat Marwick LLP paid $75 million to settle a $3 billion suit charging that it was asleep at the switch when California’s Orange County roared down the main line to bankruptcy following, like, way bad bets on derivatives. KPMG was outside auditor for the county and three of its agencies. KPMG continues to maintain that it did what it was supposed to.

Meanwhile, Arthur Andersen has started talks with Cooper & Lybrand-Brazil to samba together in Sao Paulo and the rest of Brazil. The Coopers rep in Chile has already agreed to join Andersen. Is Lima next, with all those beans to count?

Church news

The Catholic Values Investment Trust celebrated its first year of business with individual shares up 31.9% and institutional shares up 32.5%. The open-end mutual fund invests in companies that operate consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Wright Investors’ Service Inc. of Bridgeport, Conn., keeps the fund on the right path financially; John Cardinal O’Connor, archbishop of New York, does the same ecclesiastically.

By the way, Christian Brothers Investment Services Inc., which keeps an Argus eye on $2 billion in assets for Catholic institutions, is looking for somebody to do its back office chores. Mellon Bank Corp. and Northern Trust Corp. are considered the leading contenders, according to one Neal Berkowitz, chief financial officer.

Peter piper

Telegenic Peter Lynch (Remember him? He ran Fidelity’s Magellan Fund before Jeffrey Vinik, whom a lot of people are trying to forget) is the centerpiece of Fidelity Investments’ new ad campaign. The mop-topped Mr. Lynch, 54, will urge investors in print and direct mail and via the boob tube to review their mutual fund portfolios with a Fidelity saleshuman.

After building Magellan into the country’s biggest mutual fund, Mr. Lynch became vice chairman of Fidelity’s money management unit and wrote a couple of books, none of which have kept the nation’s biggest mutual fund company from losing market share.

Palladium? No waydium

Palladium (the metal, not the former N.Y. disco) took its biggest dip since 1986, dropping 12% after the New York Mercantile Exchange raised security deposits, or margins, to $11,000 more than a contract is worth.

That squeezed speculators and almost everybody else out. A 100-ounce contract is worth $35,030.

Russia stopped shipping the metal, used in electronics and catalytic converters, at the first of the year. It’s the first time anybody can remember that margins have been more than 100%.

Old Hickory is sure looking younger

Hey, it’s almost the 21st century, so the Federal Reserve has decided that although America and the baby boomers are graying, Andrew Jackson should be going the other way. The new $20 bill is based on the same engraving of the seventh president, but his image is bigger, it’s off-center (to the left, of course), it’s cropped more tightly and his hair is darker.

Pru new?

Legislators in New Jersey (motto: We got a really big piece of the rock and you other states ain’t gettin’ none) introduced bills to allow Newark-based Prudential Insurance Cos. of America to demutualize. Both would require approval by three-quarters of the board and two-thirds of at least a million policyholders.

Gap widens

The March trade gap — $13 billion — was the biggest in six years, thanks to the drag of Asia. That’s good news, says Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, because it’ll keep inflation down. The Fed’s Open Market Committee apparently agreed, since it made no change in interest rates.

UAM gets a revolver

United Asset Management got a $750 million revolving loan through J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. It’s described as being for general corporate purposes and UAM will pay 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 percentage points over the London interbank offered rate. . .Citicorp is going to reproduce offices at Kinko’s Inc. photocopy centers, with an automated teller machine, video screens, computers and sometimes even a human. A test run in Las Vegas showed that they’re a good bet

. . .CIBC Oppenheimer’s Michael Metz, a bear since 1994, is stepping down as the firm’s chief strategist. “I’m just out of sync with the market,” he growled, adding that he’ll no longer publish his opinion that the market is wildly overvalued. . .

NationsBank Corp. and Bank-America Corp. will sell $357 million in deposits and make $350 billion in small-business and low-income loans as part of their merger. . .

Lady Thatcher (she sometimes lets her husband call her Maggie), the former British prime minister, joined Bob Dole on the advisory board of Tiger Management LLP, a $18 billion hedge fund in New York.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report