Procter & Gamble LOSING jobs in Boston

The Procter & Gamble Co.’s shaving and grooming unit will shed about 215 jobs in Boston over the next five years as it moves production of older blades and razors to Poland, Mexico and elsewhere.

Spokeswoman Kelly Vannasse says a contractor who runs Gillette’s Devens warehousing and packaging facility will also eliminate up to 340 positions as the company transfers some of the operation to Andover next year and the remaining work to Mexico by 2010.

The company on Wednesday declined to disclose costs for the restructuring.

Vannasse says that most of the jobs lost in Boston will be through attrition, retirement or voluntary separation packages. The cuts represent about 9 percent of the company’s Massachusetts employees.

Mass. pension board fires managing firms

The board that manages the state’s $50.6-billion pension fund has fired five firms that managed a $1.82-billion U.S. stock portfolio, citing poor performance.

The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board on Wednesday also approved transferring nearly $1.3 billion of the stock portfolio to asset manager State Street Global Advisors.

State Treasurer Timothy Cahill’s spokeswoman, Mary Wilkins, says the remaining $540 million will be put into a mutual fund that invests in other mutual funds.

The fired managers include Legg Mason Capital Management Inc., investment advisory firm Mazama Capital Management Inc., investment firm Gardner Lewis Asset Management, Ariel Investments LLC and NWQ Investment Management Co. LLC, an affiliate of Nuveen Investments.

Conn. Suing Countrywide Financial

Connecticut sued Countrywide Financial Corp. on Wednesday, becoming the latest state to take the mortgage lender to court over its lending practices.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal alleges that Countrywide misled borrowers into taking on risky home loans they could not afford. California, Illinois, Florida and the city of San Diego have made similar claims in their own lawsuits against the company.

Countrywide, once the nation’s largest mortgage originator before a jump in bad loans ravished its business, has been blamed for helping to cause the nation’s mortgage meltdown.

The lawsuit was filed in Hartford Superior Court on Wednesday, and the company was served with the legal papers earlier in the day, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal’s office and Connecticut’s departments of Banking and Consumer Protection are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They’re alleging that the company violated state consumer protection and banking laws and charged unjustified fees to homeowners who defaulted.

“Countrywide conned homeowners into mortgages they simply could not afford,” Blumenthal said, adding that hundreds, possibly thousands, of Connecticut homeowners were affected. He said he does not yet have a precise number.

Countrywide, based in Calabasas, Calif., said in a statement Wednesday that it cannot comment on pending litigation.

But the company noted that it had previously announced its commitment to responsible lending practices, including an effort to keep an estimated 265,000 customers in their homes by modifying at least $40 billion in troubled mortgages.

“We will respond to the AG in due course,” the company said, referring to Blumenthal.

Countrywide’s shareholders approved a takeover by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America in June.

Vt. could be getting iPhone service

Vermonters may get to take advantage of Apple’s iPhone after all.

The Federal Communications Commission’s approval of Verizon Wireless’ $2.67-billion buyout of Unicel could make that possible. The deal includes a condition that Unicel’s assets in Vermont be sold to another company to ensure competition, opening the door for AT&T to come to the state and offer access to Apple’s iPhone.

In a July 31 order, the FCC said six Unicel market areas in country — including three zones that comprise Vermont, two regions in Washington state and one in upstate New York must be sold.

The iPhone is a cross between another of Apple’s industry-changing devices, the iPod, and a cell phone. It uses GSM technology and AT&T is the largest GSM carrier in the country, said AT&T spokesman David Mancuso. But he said it was premature to comment on any pending deals.

Conn. utility must give credits to customers

State regulators ordered Connecticut Natural Gas on Wednesday to immediately start crediting customers to compensate for collecting millions of dollars in profits to which it was not entitled.

Commissioners of the state Department of Public Utility Control voted unanimously to require the utility to keep the credits in place on customers’ monthly bills until new rates are set.

The average residential customer who uses gas for heating will get a monthly credit of about $9.25. For the average homeowner who uses gas for purposes other than heating, the credit would be about $2.47 monthly.

Connecticut Natural Gas was authorized to collect 10.1 percent in profits in its budget year ending April 30, but earned more for at least 6 of the 12 months, the regulators concluded last month.

The difference was about $15.5 million in excess profits for the year, which prompted state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Consumer Counsel Mary Healey to complain to regulators.

N.H. working on student-loan problems

Turmoil in the financial markets has driven many lenders out of the student-loan market, leaving students struggling to pay their fall tuition. That’s a problem that New Hampshire officials are working on.

Many students “are being frozen out from having the loans they were expecting,” said Mark Connolly, director of the state Bureau of Securities Regulation.

“In the last several days, our office has been engaged in discussions with some of the participants who have been involved in securitizing these loans in our state,” Connolly said Wednesday.

“We are trying to encourage these participants to bring liquidity to these loans so students can plan for their academic year. If we are unable to successfully encourage these participants to bring liquidity to our student loan market, we will take regulatory action that in part will address the issue,” Connolly said.

Foreclosures growing at slow pace in Maine

A study by the Maine Bureau of Financial Institutions indicates the number of homes in foreclosure in the state has grown but not enough to threaten the health and stability of state-chartered banks and credit unions.

The study analyzed residential real-estate lending data from all 34 Maine-chartered financial institutions from October 2006 through March 2008. It found that 1 in 528 loans were in the process of foreclosure, or 166 out of 88,000 mortgage loans.

Superintendent Lloyd LaFountain III describes the number of foreclosures as “nominal.” He says there’s only limited data from federally chartered institutions but he says the data likewise show a modest trend toward more foreclosures in Maine.