Chase Loosening Its Tie, Allowing Business Casual Dress Every Day
NEW YORK - At Chase Manhattan Corp.'s Park Avenue headquarters, it's all casual all the time.That is to say, employees now have the option to dress in what became known in the 1990s as "business casual attire" every day.
William B. Harrison Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, said Monday in a memo that the new policy - which actually expands upon the casual Friday policy he instituted in the summer - "will reflect the diverse preferences of [Chase] employees."
Rival commercial banks have also loosened up a little in recent months. J.P. Morgan & Co. instituted its everyday-business-casual-day policy in January.
The relaxed atmosphere also comes as banks vie to capture the attention of the New Economy. Chase has embraced the tie-free culture of Silicon Valley in recent months, most notably through its acquisition in December of San Francisco-based investment bank Hambrecht & Quist. "The change in policy gives each of us the daily responsibility of making our clients completely comfortable doing business with Chase," Mr. Harrison said in the memo.
- Liz Moyer
J.P. Morgan Loses Entertainment, Media Investment Chief to Net Firm
SAN FRANCISCO - J.P. Morgan & Co.'s global head of media and entertainment investment banking has left to join an Internet firm.Mack Rossoff has joined Wit Soundview as managing director and head of mergers and acquisitions, the company announced Tuesday. Wit Soundview, owned by Wit Capital Group Inc., is an on-line investment bank focused on the Internet and technology.
Before joining J.P. Morgan in 1997, Mr. Rossoff was head of investment banking at Schroder & Co. and a managing director with Dillon Read & Co. He was also one of the original founding partners of Wassertein Perella & Co., where he co-headed corporate finance.
- Laura Mandaro
Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Names Co-Heads of a High-Yield Group
NEW YORK - Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown said Tuesday that it had hired David Bitterman, a managing director and analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co., to co-head its high-yield research group as a managing director.Andrew W. Van Houten, a managing director and media analyst in Deutsche's high-yield group, was also named co-head.
The two junk bond specialists are taking a role that had been temporarily filled since last year by Richard Byrne, the global head of high-yield debt capital markets. Mr. Bitterman covered high-yield auto suppliers and general industrial sectors at Bear Stearns and had been named to Institutional Investor's all-America fixed-income team for three years.
- Laura Mandaro
Federal Reserve Board Greenlights Wells' Deal for Ragen Mackenzie
WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve Board this week approved the acquisition of the Seattle brokerage firm Ragen Mackenzie Inc. by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co.Through Ragen Mackenzie, which will be structured as a section 20 subsidiary, Wells Fargo will engage in investment advisory and brokerage services and will underwrite and deal in corporate debt and equity and government obligations. The move is not Wells Fargo's first into this market, having conducted similar activities through another section 20 subsidiary, Norwest Investment Services Inc., since merging with Norwest Corp. in 1998.
- Rob Garver
Bank of America Investment Unit Being Sold to Management Team
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp. has signed an agreement to sell Chicago Equity Partners Corp., a registered investment adviser, to a management team of that company.The deal, reached March 9, is expected to completed within the next few months. Terms were not disclosed.
The new company would be called Chicago Equity Partners LLC and continue to subadvise the Nations Blue Chip Fund and the Nations Asset Allocation Fund, as well as subadvise and manage some of the bank's ERISA pooled funds, Jim Miller, chief investment officer of Chicago Equity, said in a statement.
A banking company spokesman said the sale would address overlap, particularly in the area of quantitative equity investments, between Chicago Equity and Banc of America Capital Management Inc., which was formed in August 1999.
Banc of America Capital Management includes products and services from TradeStreet Investment Associates, Boatmen's Capital Management, Sovran Capital Management, and Banc of America Advisors Inc.
- Cheryl Winokur
