Whispers.

Michael O'Grady will be taking over as head of structured finance and investments in the Americas at Merrill Lynch. O'Grady is replacing Michael Blum, who left Merrill recently and was formerly the global head of the bank's ABS business. Blum was supposed to spearhead the effort to cut down Merrill's structured finance portfolio before his departure from the firm, according to sources. O'Grady was previously with Merrill's financial institutions group (FIG).

Last week the McGraw-Hill Cos., parent company of Standard & Poor's, announced that it is restructuring a limited number of business operations in its financial services and education units "to more efficiently serve its markets and strengthen its long-term growth prospects." McGraw-Hill made 246 job cuts in financial …