Stock market ‘busts’

In the midst of the economic downturn, a few women working in the financial services industry are taking advantage of some other assets to build their portfolios.

The May issue of Playboy magazine features a six-page spread of scantily clad (or not clad at all) women who are or were previously employed by banks, investment firms and trading companies.

Ranging from executive assistants to brokers, seven women made the move from Wall Street to the Playboy Mansion in the feature, “Bare Market: Women of Wall Street.”

Although some of the models didn’t identify their current or former employers, a former credit manager with Wells Fargo Financial Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa, and a financial adviser from Charles Schwab & Co. of San Francisco did disclose their places of employment.

The boom in media coverage surrounding the financial world may have made women on Wall Street a hot commodity. According to published reports, Playboy put out a casting call for financial employees back in October at the height of the economic meltdown.

Although there is little copy on the pages, one of the models used her caption space to comment on how she has curbed her spending due to the economy, and an equities trader said that the recession has slowed down the pace of her normally stressful workdays.

Playboy ran a similar Wall Street-themed photo spread 20 years ago.