ICI Urges SEC to Improve Disclosure of Trading by Corporate Insiders

Washington, DC, June 25, 2002 - The Institute filed a comment letter urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to strengthen corporate reporting of insider trading.

Noting strong support of the Commission's proposal to amend Form 8-K, the Institute said its members invest nearly $4 trillion in U.S. equity securities on behalf of millions of individual shareholders and are very interested in having timely access to information about transactions in an issuer's securities by corporate insiders.

This information can provide useful insight on management's views on the company's performance and prospects and provide an indication of the extent to which management's interests are aligned with those of the company. In addition, information about loans of money made or guaranteed by a company to directors and executive officers provides important information to investors about the receipt of additional compensation to such persons that generally is not otherwise publicly available.