Wachovia Securities

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Wachovia Securities

Type	Public
Genre	Securities
Founded	September 4, 2001^[1]
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Total assets	$1.17 trillion^[2]
Employees	17,900^[2]
Parent	Wachovia
Website	wachoviasec.com

Wachovia Securities, located in St. Louis, Missouri, is the second largest brokerage firm in the United States as of October 1, 2007 with $1.17 trillion retail client assets under management.^[2] It is a subsidiary of Wachovia Corporation.

1 History
- 1.1 Prudential Securities purchase
- 1.2 A. G. Edwards purchase
2 NASD
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Wachovia Securities began as a result of the banking arms of First Union Corporation and Wachovia Corporation merging.^[1] At First Union, it began as the investment firm of J.C. Wheat & Co. in 1934. Wheat fostered growth through mergers, including the 1971 merger with First Securities that created Wheat First Securities, Inc. and the 1988 merger with Butcher & Singer, a successful Philadelphia-based securities firm established in 1910; the firm then became known as Wheat First Butcher Singer. In August 1997, the privately held Wheat First Butcher Singer agreed to be acquired for just under $500 million by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based First Union bank. The brokerage firm changed its name to Wheat First Union, reflecting its newly acquired status. In April 1999, First Union acquired Chicago-based investment bank and brokerage Everen Capital Corp. for $1.1 billion. On the Wachovia side, Wachovia Corporation acquired the brokerage firm Interstate Johnson Lane in April 1999, and changed the name to IJL Wachovia.

[edit] Prudential Securities purchase

Wachovia Securities and the Prudential Securities Division of Prudential Financial combined to form the new Wachovia Securities on July 1, 2003. Wachovia owns 62% of this entity, while Prudential Financial owns 38%.^[3] At the time, the new firm had client assets of $532.1 billion, making it the nation's third largest full service retail brokerage firm based on assets.^[3]

[edit] A. G. Edwards purchase

In May of 2007, Wachovia Securities announced the purchase of A. G. Edwards of St. Louis, Missouri and its upcoming move to St. Louis as its new world headquarters. The new firm is the second largest brokerage firm in the United States. The shareholder vote took place and was finalized on October 1, 2007.

[edit] NASD

On June 21, 2007, the NASD fined Wachovia Securities $2 million for failing to adequately supervise its fee-based brokerage business between 2001 through 2004. In addition, NASD ordered Wachovia to identify and pay restitution to approximately 1,300 customers who were inappropriately allowed to continue maintaining fee-based accounts, or who were inappropriately charged account fees on Class A mutual fund share holdings for which they had already paid a sales load.^[4]