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BRITISHAMERICAN BUSINESS: WINSTON CHURCHILL LECTURE
DICK GRASSO OUTLINES AGENDA TO RESTORE INVESTOR CONFIDENCE

NEW YORK, April 30, 2003 –Dick Grasso, Chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, today outlined his agenda for restoring investor confidence in a major address to a full house of members of BritishAmerican Business Inc., the leading transatlantic business organization.

His address was delivered as the Annual Winston Churchill Lecture for 2003, an initiative launched last year by BritishAmerican Business to provide a platform for a major government/business leader to lay out an agenda to meet a major challenge facing the transatlantic business community. Winston Churchill, grandson of the wartime leader, was one of the many government and business leaders in the audience.

In laying out his agenda, Dick Grasso identified two key measures as critical to restoring public trust: identifying unethical people and procedures, and securing integrity within the financial community.

He also lauded the key role played by the United Kingdom as America’s most important partner and ally -- politically, militarily, and economically -- noting in particular the key roles played by the partnerships of Churchill/Roosevelt, Thatcher/Reagan, and Blair/Bush in promoting economic growth and political freedoms.

“Having welcomed British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, as our first Winston Churchill Lecturer last year, we could not have wished for a more impressive or timely lecturer than Dick Grasso this year”, commented Richard Fursland, Chief Executive of BritishAmerican Business. “His address represents a critical contribution to the achievement of a major goal for companies and individuals throughout North America, Europe and the world.”

In his address, Dick Grasso noted that, in order to feel good about future equity investment, the public needs full candor – candor about mistakes of the past and solutions to fix the problems. “Whether you’re running a public company, whether you’re running a broker dealer or whether you’re running a stock exchange, ask one simple question: Is what you’re about to do going to benefit the least-sophisticated consumer whom you serve?” Restoring public trust will lead to U.S. and U.K. economic growth in the future, said the New York Stock Exchange chairman. “Investors aren’t expecting guaranteed profits,” Grasso said, “they’re looking for guaranteed fairness.”

Grasso noted that this back-to-basics approach is used by the New York Stock Exchange daily. Companies and individuals who are found to have defied the philosophy will be dealt with immediately, he said. Of the stock exchange’s 1,525 employees, 565 are in the regulatory business. Grasso also pledged to release “every gory detail” of a current investigation begin conducted by the NYSE’s regulatory unit, if, in fact, wrongdoings are found.

The recently announced $1.4 billion Wall Street settlement to resolve conflict-of-interest charges relating to stock recommendations and research was “only the beginning,” Grasso said. There are many people who have yet to stand the scrutiny of the public, media, customer and investor to address important questions. Furthermore, civil law suits may follow regulatory decisions. However, Grasso also emphasized the positives, recalling how much has been done, how much wealth and jobs created under the U.S. – U.K. economic model.

Since Grasso joined the New York Stock Exchange 36 years ago, the exchange has gone from a value of less than $750 million to more than $13 trillion. Among the listed companies, nearly 500 foreign-owned companies have a market capitalization that exceeds $4 trillion and about 25 percent of that capitalization comes from British companies.

The Annual Winston Churchill Lecture is held by BritishAmerican Business in association with the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Title Sponsor of the lecture series.

Download a copy of the event transcript (PDF) Get Acrobat Reader (Free)

Notes to Editors:

BritishAmerican Business Inc.

BritishAmerican Business Inc. of New York and London is the leading transatlantic business organization, dedicated to helping its 1,000 member companies build and expand their international business. BritishAmerican Business provides its members directly with a range of targeted business services focused on business development, business intelligence and networking, and with access to broader business networks in more than 60 other major cities throughout North America and Europe. BritishAmerican Business incorporates the British-American Chamber of Commerce (New York/London) and the American Chamber of Commerce (UK), which merged in September 2000 to create a stronger transatlantic business organization.

Royal Bank of Scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland is a broadly based financial services group with operations spanning clearing banking, corporate banking, financial services, investment management and insurance, both in the UK and overseas. It is the second largest in bank in Europe and the fifth largest banking group in the world by market capitalisation. The Group serves over 20 million customers. Through its Financial Markets division it provides specialist services in global foreign exchange, currency and structured derivatives, money markets, together with a wide range of interest rate management services to The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest international corporate and institutional client base.