ECONOMICS
REPORT - New York Stock Exchange, Part 2: Proposed Reforms
By Mario Ritter
This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English
Economics Report.
Last week we told about the New York Stock Exchange
and the resignation of its chairman, Richard Grasso. This week we tell
about proposals by the temporary chairman, John Reed, to reform the
world's biggest stock market.
Mister Grasso spent thirty-five years there, the last
eight as chairman. He left in September after the public learned about
his pay. The Board of Directors had awarded him a deal worth almost
one-hundred-eighty-eight-million-dollars.
Critics said investors could not trust the board because
of its close ties to the investment companies that the exchange supervises.
Earlier this month, Mister Reed proposed that instead
of twenty-seven directors, he wants at most twelve. He asked all but
two of the current directors to resign. The two are former Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright and Herbert Allison Junior. Mister Allison
is chairman of T-I-A-A-CREF, a financial services company. Both joined
the board this year.
Mister Reed said his plan would create the first totally
independent board in the two-hundred-eleven-year history of the exchange.
He also says the exchange should continue to have the power to police
itself. Critics of his plan called for greater separation between those
who enforce the rules of the exchange and those who must obey them.
Members of the exchange will vote on the plan November
eighteenth. For his services as temporary chairman, Mister Reed will
be paid one dollar.
There have also been calls to reform an important
group of members of the New York Stock Exchange. These are called specialists.
Specialists are central to trading on the New York
Stock Exchange. Each stock listed on the exchange is represented by
a specialist. They receive requests to buy stocks. They bring buyers
and sellers together. They buy and sell stocks for themselves. Specialists
also are expected to use their own money to help control stock prices.
Recently, the exchange accused five specialist companies
of using their position unfairly. It says they put their own interests
ahead of those who trade stock for the public. The exchange is seeking
total fines of about one-hundred-fifty million dollars. The Securities
and Exchange Commission in Washington is urging higher fines and a wider
investigation.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written
by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.
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