Wachovia Securities LLC plans to close a number of its retail offices and will operate most of its municipal trading and underwriting from its corporate base in Richmond, Va., according to a trader at the firm.
Wachovia plans to close its offices in Dallas, Boca Raton, Fla., Denver, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Kansas City, effective May 31. These offices, which are expected to continue to function fully until then, currently run primary and secondary trading desks and offer some underwriting services, said the trader, , who did not want to be identified. He noted that the closures come as they want to do most of the underwriting and trading out of Richmond.
The trader said that the traders and underwriters in the offices scheduled to close will be severanced out. He was not aware of any transfers. According to the trader, the move does not affect public finance offices, which are separate and are departments of Wachovia Bank.
The scheduled closures are the most recent in Wachovias strategic reorganization since Wachovia Corp. acquired Prudential Financial Inc. in July 2003.
In February 2004, the firm relocated some of its traders from the tax-exempt municipal trading operations of the former Prudential Securities in lower Manhattan to Wachovias headquarters in Richmond. At that time, a Wachovia spokesman said Wachovia already had municipal operations in Richmond, which was home to 14 traders who participate in the long- and short-term market. He said then that the relocation was an effort to consolidate all the positions in one place.
Wachovia had inherited a number of the offices from previous acquisitions by Wachovia Corp. With its acquisition of Prudential in July 2003, the firm acquired offices in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and Boca Raton. The firm also acquired a number of offices with its acquisition of First Union Corp. in 2001, including offices in Denver and Kansas City.
A spokeswoman at Wachovia was unable to provide a comment about the closings by press time.
