"One of our key goals over the last few years has been to exit NASD's historical market ownership stakes, and to focus our entire organization on NASD's core mission of promoting market integrity and protecting investors," said Robert Glauber, Chairman and CEO of NASD. "The agreement announced today is an important milestone in a continuing process that we hope will ensure a sound future for the Amex and its constituencies."
Commenting on the agreement, Salvatore Sodano, Amex Chairman and CEO said, "The agreement reached with GTCR should ensure that a strengthened Amex can continue to be a vital participant in our financial markets, with leading franchises in options, exchangetraded funds and equities, while remaining an important employer in New York City."
There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed or that such approvals will be granted.
NASD intends to use proceeds from the transaction to fulfill all of its obligations to enhance Amex's infrastructure and operations which it undertook in1998 when the exchange was acquired.
NASD is the leading private-sector provider of financial regulatory services, dedicated to bringing integrity to the markets and confidence to investors through effective and efficient regulation and complementary compliance and technology-based services. NASD touches virtually every aspect of the securities business - from registering and educating all industry participants, to examining securities firms, enforcing both NASD rules and the federal securities laws, and administering the largest dispute resolution forum for investors and member firms. For more information, please visit our web site at www.nasd.com.
