Breeden Forms Blue-Ribbon Panel To Advise Him on Financial Issues
WASHINGTON - Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard C. Breeden has formed a panel of 10 prominent financial services executives to advise him on legislative and regulatory matters.
The executives represent the banking, savings and loan, securities, and insurance industries. They will help the SEC stake out positions on banking reform legislation now moving through Congress, the commission said Monday.
The panel, dubbed the "Market Oversight and Financial Services Advisory Committee," also will help the SEC to finetune regulations governing capital-rasing activities.
Bankers on the panel are Robert H. Smith, president and chief executive of Security Pacific Corp. in Los Angeles, and John G. Medlin Jr., chairman and CEO of Wachovia Corp. in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Industry sources said Dennis Weatherstone, chairman of J.P. Morgan & Co., declined to join the committee because of time contraints.
Representing the thrift industry are Richard H. Deihl, chairman and CRO of H.F. Ahmanson & Co. in Los Angeles, and Charles B. Stuzin, chairman and president of Citizens Savings Financial Corp. in Miami.
James D. Robinson 3d, chairman and CEO of American Express Co., is probably the best known of the panel's members.
Washington is nearly shut down for the Fourth of July holiday, and there was little reaction to the SEC announcment. But Mr. Breeden is frequently criticized for trying to extend his authority beyond securities firms to the banking and thrift industries.
Most of the financial regulatory agencies have advisory committees of private-sector executives.
Rounding out the SEC panel are John C. Bogle, chairman and CEO of the Vanguard Group Inc., a mutual fund company in Valley Forge, Pa.; James S. Riepe, managing director T. Rowe PRice Associates Inc., a mutual fund in Baltimore; Robert E. Rubin, co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York; Robert C. Winters, chairman and CEO of the Prudential Insurance Co. of America, Newark, N.J.; and Frank G. Zarb, chairman and CEO of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., New York.
