Arthur Levitt
Arthur Levitt
Arthur Levitt Jr.was the twenty-fifth and longest-serving Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commissionfrom 1993 to 2001. Widely hailed as a champion of the individual investor, he has been criticized for not pushing for tougher accounting rules. Since May 2001 he has been employed as a senior adviser at the Carlyle Group. Levitt previously served as a policy advisor to Goldman Sachs and is a Director of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg News...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth3 February 1931
CountryUnited States of America
It has been almost 30 years since significant steps were taken to improve the mutual fund governance structure, ... Whether shareholders realize it or not, how directors fulfill their responsibilities directly affects them every day.
It is incumbent on us to facilitate the development of a market structure that best assures that these changes benefit the U.S. securities markets as a whole.
Our markets have not achieved their great successes as a result of government fiat, but rather through efforts of competing interests working to meet the demands of investors and to fulfill the promises posed by advancing technology.
From my own personal experience the best CEOs that I have ever known are the ones that don't care very much about the day-to-day fluctuations of their shares.
Fund directors should be on the front lines in defense of shareholder interest,
That also has put pressure on analysts to report favorably on a company in order to maintain access to inside information,
I worry the best execution may be compromised by payment for order flow, internalization, and certain other practices that can present conflicts between the interests of brokers and their customers.
We have an opportunity today that we may not have again in our lifetime, to realize the vision for a true national market system,
The American economy is the eighth wonder of the world. The ninth is the economic ignorance of the American people.
These issues are not academic or peripheral -- they directly affect every mutual fund investor. ... One word above all must define a fund's overall management structure. That word is accountability. And, without strong independent directors, accountability is nothing more than words on a page.