Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Home on the range where the buffalo roam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D.B. Cooper who wrote (7803)	6/8/2002 10:39:42 AM
From: D.B. Cooper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13815

Money Talks Reuters Company News US state pension funds take on Wall Street reform By Chris Sanders NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) - The managers of New York and North Carolina's huge public pension funds on Friday said they want to steer their lucrative investment business to Wall Street firms that maintain sturdier walls between their research and investment banking divisions. ADVERTISEMENT In the wake of Enron Corp.'s (Other OTC:ENRNQ.PK - News) downfall and the flood of corporate collapses thereafter, North Carolina and New York's state pension managers, with $172 billion between them, want to protect the retirement funds of state residents. North Carolina State Treasurer Richard Moore told Reuters that as early as next week he will suggest how overseers of multibillion-dollar public pension funds can push the brokerage and asset management community to keep a sharper eye on accounting practices and corporate conduct. Reeling from accusations that it misled investors with overly bullish research, Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE:MER - News) said on Friday it will pay its analysts based on the performance of their stock picks and simplify its stock rating system. Merrill came under fire from New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who accused the firm's Internet analysts they privately mocked in order to win investment banking business. Speaking about the firms that give investment advice to the state, Moore said, "They have spent years designing wonderful screens that will predict whether a stock will go up or down." But "what we found in the marketplace is that there are things outside of the balance sheet that all too often lead back to the balance sheet." Topping Moore's list of changes is a code of conduct determining whether corporate officers can borrow from the company and rules similar to the New York Stock Exchange's new requirement that companies reduce the number of insiders in their boardrooms. "We are trying to fashion something that would benefit my fund and possibly have tremendous ripple affects," said Moore, who oversees $60 billion in public pension assets. New York State Comptroller Carl McCall, who is the sole trustee of the $112 billion New York Common Retirement Fund, is studying similar changes, his spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said. McCall's spokesman added, "It's an idea that is being discussed with some of our brokers and some of the people we do business with." Neither Moore nor McCall's spokesman would provide any details of what they are working on, but Moore gave a few hints including grading companies' accounting practices. Other public pension fund managers weren't quick to jump on board with New York and North Carolina, but approve of the basic concept. Pennsylvania's Treasurer Barbara Hafer would go about it a different way, her spokesman Bob Gentszel said, because she believes the issue should be dealt with on a national basis. Hafer, who is custodian for more than $100 billion in state assets, including three pension funds and Treasury investments, has lobbied several national organizations to implement corporate governance reforms. "She is of the belief that we'll get the best results if reforms, which are clearly necessary, are imposed uniformly at the national level," Gentszel said. Florida's Deputy Executive Director of the State Board of Administration, Coleman Stipanovich, fully supports what New York and North Carolina are doing, but said for now, Florida will not being joining its northern neighbors. "There is no question changes need to take place," but we aren't studying a plan like New York is, said Stipanovich, who helps oversee $95 billion in pension assets.