Pension funds move to curb conflicts
Money managers demand restrictions on research analysts
By David Feldheim and Charles Gasparino
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 2 — Officials representing several of the nation’s largest pension funds announced they have launched an initiative to protect public pension funds from the risks of conflicts of interest involving Wall Street analysts.
UNDER THE PLAN, firms that do business with public pension funds in New York, California and North Carolina will be asked to adopt the conflict-of-interest principles set forth in the agreement New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer reached with Merrill Lynch & Co. in May. In essence, officials representing public pension funds from these states say they will award their brokerage business only to those firms that adopt changes designed to reduce potential conflicts of interest involving stock-research analysts.
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The new initiative was jointly announced by New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, California State Treasurer Philip Angelides and North Carolina Treasurer Richard Moore. Mr. Spitzer, who helped bring the trio together after Mr. Moore came up with the idea a few weeks ago, attended the press conference as well. The effort was reported last month by The Wall Street Journal. Officials involved in the move say they expect other public pension funds and some large investors to join the agreement.
“What’s wonderful about this is that this initiative is not about government regulation,” Mr. Spitzer said in an interview. “These are consumers of services who are demanding that their suppliers live up to certain standards. This is what the marketplace should be all about.”
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Mr. McCall is sole trustee for the New York State Common Retirement Fund, with $112 billion in investments, while Mr. Moore is sole trustee to the North Carolina Public Employees Retirement System, with about $60 billion in investments. Meanwhile, Mr. Angelides manages the California Pooled Investment Account, which has more than $50 billion in taxpayer funds and also selects the investment banks that underwrite California state bond and debt issuance, which is expected to exceed $25 billion in 2002 alone.
2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.