BANKING : First American Shift to Big Board Has Been in Works a Long Time

First American Financial Corp.’s move to the New York Stock Exchange this week was a long time coming.

Directors of the Santa Ana company, the parent of the nation’s second-largest title insurer, have been urging Chairman Donald P. Kennedy for years to move the company’s stock listing to the Big Board from the fast-growing Nasdaq computer market.

Kennedy had balked early on, reportedly because of the cost.

But the directors and officers launched a strategy several years ago aimed at putting the company on Wall Street.

In the past year, the company has streamlined its ownership by abolishing a two-class common stock system for one class, obtained $38 million in a stock offering and bolstered its New York operations with a key acquisition.

And it came just in time, some top executives think. Nasdaq, a computerized stock trading system that bills itself as the exchange for companies of the future, has come under fire.

Forbes magazine, after studying the differences between Nasdaq’s system and the auction floors of the New York and American stock exchanges, determined that Nasdaq provides brokers with bigger commissions that, in turn, foster more Nasdaq sales. But investors are paying the price, the magazine determined.

Executives at First American, fearing repercussions from investors about the criticism, were relieved that the company already had decided to move.