THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411050666
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
NationsBank Corp. and Dean Witter Discover & Co. announced the breakup of NationsSecurities, a two-year-old partnership that sells securities and investment products in bank branches.
Charlotte-based NationsBank said it will buy that part of the joint venture operating within NationsBank retail offices.
Dean Witter Discover, the New York-based parent of securities firm Dean Witter Reynolds, will buy the NationsSecurities program that sells securities and investment products to other banks around the country.
The split is scheduled to take effect Nov. 15. Financial details were not disclosed.
NationsSecurities has 600 securities brokers working in NationsBank's nine-state market, including several brokers in Hampton Roads.
NationsSecurities brokers and accounts at NationsBank offices will remain in those offices, said Mary Waller, a NationsBank spokeswoman. For NationsSecurities clients, she said, ``there should be no change.''
When announcing the creation of NationsSecurities in late 1992, NationsBank described the partnership as a vehicle for expanding the delivery of investment services to its retail banking customers.
``This joint venture has worked out well,'' Waller said. The breakup, she said, is unrelated to complaints by former brokers or to the scrutiny of NationsSecurities sales practices by state securities regulators.
NationsSecurities has been the target of lawsuits brought by investors alleging that they had been encouraged to move insured bank deposits into mutual funds and securities without being adequately informed of the risks.
NationsBank will not comment on specific allegations, but ``we continue to believe that the operations of NationsBank and NationsSecurities are in full compliance with all applicable rules and regulations,'' Waller said.
Also, several NationsSecurities brokers and former brokers have contended in complaints to the National Association of Securities Dealers that they had been misled about the compensation and administrative support they would receive if they joined NationsSecurities. by CNB