N.Y. B-D down: Ticonderoga expected to halt operations by end of week

Ticonderoga Securities LLC, the New York brokerage with about 75 employees, will halt operations after an attempt to boost capital fell through, according to people with direct knowledge of the decision. Senior managers told employees today that the firm is closing by week's end, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the plan hasn't been announced publicly. Brokerages are under pressure as debt and equity trading is curbed by investor concern that Europe's debt crisis may deepen. WJB Capital Group Inc. shut its doors this month. MF Global Holdings Ltd. filed for bankruptcy Oct. 31 after getting margin calls and bank demands for money. Shawn McLoughlin, Ticonderoga's chief executive officer, said he couldn't comment on its plans. The company, formerly Reynders, Gray & Co., was founded in 1979 and renamed Ticonderoga in 2009, according to its website. The firm provides research and services spanning investment banking, sales and trading. Ticonderoga closed its fixed-income business in August, six months after starting the unit, as trading volumes declined. Average daily trading volume on major U.S. exchanges fell 20 percent last year from 2009 amid a financial crisis in the U.S., a downgrade of the nation's debt and concern the European sovereign-debt crisis could spread. WJB Capital, which was based in New York and employed about 100 people, halted its brokerage operations following a year of slower trading, a shortage of capital and interest rates of 25 percent on some debts. MF Global, the New York-based firm previously run by former New Jersey governor and ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. co-chairman Jon Corzine, shuttered after revealing a $6.3 billion bet on the bonds of some of Europe's most-indebted nations. Bloomberg