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On the first day of work under the SEC’s new
Regulation FD (“Fair Disclosure”), has life really changed for
analysts? Have the companies you cover stopped talking to you?
Have investors stopped listening to you? Are you unable to get
the information you need for intelligent investment decisions?
Or, as some people claim, is Reg FD nothing new, just a more
detailed explanation of the old “don’t lie or cheat” rule? And,
most importantly, one way or another, how can analysts make the
new rule work for them, and for the investment community they
serve?
If you want to help define investment
community adaptations to Reg FD, you can hear what the experts
say, ask questions, and express your own views at a meeting of
the Performance Analysis and Information (“PAIS”) Panel <http://www.nyssa.org/governance/pais.html>
hosted by the NYSSA Committee for Corporate Governance. This is
the third in a series of open meetings being conducted by the
Panel, which was formed in July 2000 to develop recommendations
for new standards for analyst communications with the companies
they cover.
Speakers & Agenda
3:30 - Richard A. Levine, Assistant General Counsel
(Enforcement Matters), Securities & Exchange Commission, has
been involved in the SEC's development of Regulation FD and in
subsequent communications with constituencies concerned with its
implementation; he will address the SEC's intent and current
concerns.
3:50 - Vahan Janjigian, Director, Forbes Investors
Advisory Institute, is a former professor now practicing a
combination of securities analysis and journalism; he will
address the effects of Regulation FD on the function of
investment markets and on the individual analyst's professional
opportunities.
4:10 - Raymond L. Dirks, President, Dirks & Company,
defined new professional standards when his relentless
investigation of Equity Funding revealed one of the greatest
financial frauds of the century; he will tell us how Regulation
FD might help or hinder the kind of analysis that makes news.
4:30 - Andrea L. Dulberg, Corporate Secretary, Merrill
Lynch & Co., Inc., is responsible for a "best practice" leader's
adaptation to Regulation FD; she will report what it means for
their corporate executives responding to investors in Merrill
Lynch and, on the other side, for the firm's own investment
professionals.
4:50 - Open discussion
Advisory Panel
Gary Lutin (Panel Chairman), Lutin &
Company
Peter F. Brennan, Chairman, NYSSA's Corporate Governance
& Shareholder Rights Committee
Charles M. Elson, Director, Delaware Center for Corporate
Governance
Elizabeth A. Fender, Director, Accounting Standards,
AICPA
James C. Goodale, former Vice Chairman of the New York
Times and host of PBS TV's "Digital Age"
Russell Grandinetti, Treasurer, Amazon.com
Faye I. Landes, Senior Research Analyst, Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co.
Kurt N. Schacht, COO, Evergreen Asset Management |