Spitzer calls for greater institutional investor involvement

New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, widely known on Wall Street for having led recent legal attacks on conflicts of interest between underwriting and stock analysis at investment banks, told attendees of the PRMIA 2003 summit today that institutional investors would have "re-engage" and "exercise voice" as shareholders to improve corporate governance revealed as flawed during 2001 and 2002’s corporate scandals.

“The single most important piece of work we have yet to do relates to institutional shareholders,” Spitzer said. “Institutional shareholders ultimately are the ones who have to resurrect corporate governance,” he added.Spitzer said recent statistics showed that the holding periods of individual stocks by large shareholders had fallen and suggested that active trading was not helping to close the gap between stockholders’ interests and those of the figure of the “imperial CEO” who arose in