U.S. insurance company Prudential Financial Inc. said on Wednesday that it will shut down its institutional stock research and trading business, Prudential Equity Group, ending a rocky 26-year stay on Wall Street, reported Reuters.
According to Reuters, the life insurance and money management giant will move to shutter offices and trading operations in nine U.S. cities as well as in London, Zurich, Paris and Tokyo. Some 400 employees will be terminated.
Prudential Equity Group is dropping coverage of the sectors and companies it covers, effective immediately, reported Reuters.
The move completes Prudential's withdrawal from the securities industry, where shrinking commissions and regulatory changes have weeded out dozens of traditional stock brokers. Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America ventured onto Wall Street in 1981, when it acquired national retail brokerage house Bache Halsey Stuart Shields to form Prudential-Bache Securities, reported Reuters.
According to Reuters, from a financial standpoint, Prudential Equity had little impact. Last year the unit generated $260 million in revenue and $34 million in pretax income. It managed just $137 million of assets, compared with Prudential Financial's $630 billion.
-New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants
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