Wachovia to Buy MetWest Securities

Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., plans to buy Brentwood-based Metropolitan West Securities, an affiliate of Metropolitan West Financial Inc. that specializes in securities lending and short-term fixed-income asset management.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MetWest Securities, founded in 1992, when it bought the securities lending operations of Bank of America Corp., is one of the nation’s largest securities lending agents. As of Sept. 30, MetWest had more than $50 billion of stocks, bonds and other securities on loan with institutional investors.

Securities lending is the temporary loan of a security from an institutional investor’s portfolio to a brokerage or bank to support that firm’s trading activities, such as short selling and selling on margin.

MetWest Securities says its clients include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Microsoft Corp.

Upon completion of the deal, expected in January, MetWest Securities’ 60 executives and employees would continue operating the firm under its current name from its offices in California and New Jersey.

Holding company MetWest Financial manages about $65 billion for institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals.