Will Kemper Pull The Rug Out From Under Shark By Moving Prescott Ball To Beta?

Kemper Securities Inc. has owned quote- and back-office system vendor Beta Systems Inc. since 1982, but even now not all its brokerage divisions use Beta services.

That may soon change, however: Cleveland-based brokerage unit Prescott Ball & Turben -- the last holdout within Kemper not using Beta for quote services -- moved its Chicago branch office staff into two other Kemper buildings there, in the process pulling some 30 brokers off their Shark terminals and parking them in front of Beta