The Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association has joined the growing list of clients to stop doing business with scandal-plagued Salomon Brothers Inc.
Spokesman Don Schaefer said the state pension fund voted last week to stop trading in governments with the firm, which has consistently been one of the fund's top five brokers.
Since Jan. 1, CPERA has been involved in transactions with Salomon with a par value of $700.5 million. He said the $10.6 billion will continue a limited equities business with the firm. The decision is not likely to affect the investment strategy of the fund, which still plans to do business with 13 other brokers.
"We think that with the other brokers we won't see any impact on our investments," he said. The retirement fund pays pensions to 135,000 retirees from Colorado, school districts, the judiciary and several municipalities.
Salomon Brothers has lost several big names clients since it admitted earlier this month that it repeatedly submitted unauthorized bids in customers' names at several Treasury market auctions in the past nine months. Top executives at the firm also resigned after admitting that they knew of the actions for months, but did not report them.
Mr. Schaefer said the 16-member board voted unanimously to stop doing business with Salomon Brothers "until there is strong demonstrated evidenced of a positive change in their operating procedures and compliance with federal regulation."
