SEC's Levitt Urges More Accounting Supervision on 'Rukeyser'
Owings Mills, Maryland, March 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt said
halting accounting fraud and ensuring corporate transparency are
regulators' top concerns.
Levitt, speaking on Public Broadcasting System's ''Wall
Street Week With Louis Rukeyser,'' said the U.S. is ''pretty
good'' in enforcing accounting principles, but ''we've got a way
to go.''
The SEC last year boosted its effort to stop accounting
manipulation, with Levitt in September faulting company
executives, auditors and analysts for using ''gimmicks,'' ''hocus
pocus'' and ''illusions'' to make earnings meet projections. The
SEC also began studying new accounting rules, stepping up
enforcement and challenging the way revenue and expenses are
recorded in some financial statements.
Levitt endorsed establishing international accounting
standards, especially as a means of getting more foreign
companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, as long it doesn't lead
to a ''degrading'' of U.S. standards. He also said the U.S. would
be willing to tighten some standards to comply with more strict
ones abroad.
Levitt also chastised companies that hold analyst meetings
that are closed to the public.
''Most of America knows that the individual investor is our
most important consideration,'' he said. The SEC has ''made it
plain to companies'' that they'll be investigated if they don't
tell the public everything they've said to analysts, Levitt said.
Levitt, who was chairman of the American Stock Exchange from
1978 to 1989, said he supports extending New York Stock Exchange
hours if that's what it takes to maintain ''our capital market
supremacy.''
Among the panelists, Liz Ann Sonders, a money manger for
Avatar Associates Inc., recommended Microsoft Corp., America
Online Inc. and Intel Corp.
Tom Gallagher, an analyst in Washington for International
Strategy and Investment Group, said he expects the Justice
Department to win part of its case against Microsoft and that the
issue will ultimately be settled in the U.S. Supreme Court. He
also predicted that Microsoft will have to make some adjustments
to its business model in the end.
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