JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are on the verge of completing settlements with government regulators to buy back auction-rate securities from clients, Bloomberg reports.
State regulators, JPMorgan, the third-largest US bank by assets, and Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest US securities firm by market value, aimed to announce the accords yesterday, the people said. Wachovia Corp., the fourth-largest US bank, also is nearing a deal, said Laura Egerdal, a spokeswoman for Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who is in the talks.
The full story is available at the Bloomberg web-site.