Prudential Securities to Trim 160 Jobs

Prudential Securities, the brokerage arm of Prudential Insurance Co. of America, said it will cut 160 jobs at its investment banking unit, which has performed poorly compared with other top banks, as its parent company prepares to go public. Prudential Securities, which has about 7,000 brokers, said the 130 people remaining at its investment banking arm would focus on research for individual and institutional investors, rather than on serving initial public offering issuers. The announcement came the same day that Prudential Insurance’s board voted to abandon the Newark, N.J.-based company’s mutual status and become a publicly traded company, with its own IPO expected in the fourth quarter of next year.

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