AT THE BELL

BIG BOARD TO BENCH RODMAN

The New York Stock Exchange will suspend trading in the stock of ailing Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group Inc. on Friday. The Chicago brokerage said the Big Board is taking the action based on the firm’s continued inability to meet listing requirements, including the aggregate market value of its shares, average net income and tangible assets. Rodman said it is exploring qualifying its shares for trading in “alternative markets.” The brokerage is 70% owned by Mexico-based Abaco Grupo Financiero, which was taken over by the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission last August.

GE going for brokers

Guess who’s looking to get into the brokerage business? GE Capital Services Inc., the Stamford, Conn.-based financial services arm of General Electric Co., was one of at least eight suitors bidding for Nathan & Lewis Securities Inc., according to a source familiar with the deal. GE lost out to Boston-based New England Life Insurance Co., which announced last week it was acquiring the New York brokerage (a deal first reported in InvestmentNews’ Feb. 9 issue). A GE spokesman declined comment. Other bidders included American Express Financial Advisors and Jackson National Life Insurance Co.

The report of a GE bid is no surprise since the subsidiary, which manages its own family of mutual funds, has been acquiring life insurance companies around the world, and wants a distribution network for their products. Nathan & Lewis, which has about 900 reps, could have served that purpose. New England, which says Nathan & Lewis will operate autonomously and separate from its own broker-dealer firm, New England Securities, did not disclose a purchase price. Nathan & Lewis would not confirm reports that it was between $30 million and $40 million.

Gesundheit!

Mutual fund managers like to joke that when Alan Greenspan sneezes, the market moves. Well, after a Federal Reserve spokesman announced that the chairman had the sniffles and wouldn’t attend a weekend meeting of
G-7 finance ministers, 500 million shares were traded on a choppy Friday. Don’t blame Mr. Greenspan. His cold came on a double-witching Friday, when lots of options expired. The Dow Jones industrial average capped off the week at 8413.94, up 38.36 points for the day and 15.44 since the previous Friday. But watch out. Unemployment is at an all-time low, a leading indicator of inflation on the way: “You gotta wonder if Mr. Greenspan is going to raise rates at some point,” says William Riegel, managing director of U.S. large-cap equities at J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York.

Swedish sweetener for IRA

American Skandia has come up with a Roth IRA marketing gimmick that may be hard to beat: cold, hard cash. The Shelton, Conn.-based U.S. unit of Swedish insurer Skandia Insurance Co. is offering a 2.5% bonus to investors who open a Roth individual retirement account or convert an existing IRA into a Roth using its fund family’s new X share. The rebate softens the tax blow for investors doing IRA rollovers and makes it easier to swallow early withdrawal penalties associated with pulling money out of competing products. But alas, brokers bear much of the cost of the rebate in the form of lower commissions.

Marking time on e-mail ban

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards is “exploring all options” on how to enforce its CFP trademark rights on the Internet, says David Brand, executive director of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners in Denver. Mr. Brand, who met recently with CFP Board officials over that body’s controversial edict that CFPs not use the initials on e-mail addresses (InvestmentNews, Feb. 9), says “they were very open to our feedback. . . . They’re extremely understanding of the concerns of the members. . . . They are also very committed to making sure that the mark is protected.” But, the board has not yet changed its stance.

Etc.: Alliance taps Merrill exec

New York-based Alliance Capital Management LP has hired David Conine – a 28-year veteran
of Merrill Lynch & Co. and its top mutual fund marketer – as an executive vice president. Mr. Conine will lead Alliance Fund Distributors Inc.’s marketing, product and strategic relationship efforts. The money manager also reshuffled its funds distribution unit, naming Richard Saccullo head of U.S. fund sales, and Richard Davies head of a new consolidated unit focused on fee-based advisor sales. . . . The president of Aetna Financial Services, a broker-dealer that served about 300 career insurance agents for Aetna Inc., is leaving after three years on the job, saying his part of the business was being de-emphasized. Craig Junkins, 42, says he will become a consultant until he finds a new position. . . . Chase Manhattan Corp. has made it official: As of April 1, its Vista fund family will become the Chase Vista Funds. Chase’s move mirrors one by New York rival Citicorp (changing Landmark to CitiFunds). . . . The NASD levied fines totaling $125,000 – largest ever for misleading mutual fund advertising – against Fundamental Service Corp. and two execs. The self-regulating body charged a million copies of “false and misleading” materials were distributed to tout Fundamental’s U.S. Government Strategic Income Fund.