LONDON, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AMVESCAP PLC today confirmed it
has reached final settlements with the Attorneys General of New York and
Colorado, the Secretary of State of Georgia and the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the company's previously disclosed civil
enforcement actions and investigations related to market timing. The monetary
amounts and other terms of the final settlements are consistent with
AMVESCAP's previously announced agreements in principle with state regulators
and the SEC staff.
"We're pleased to have this final settlement with our regulators," said
Charles W. Brady, executive chairman of AMVESCAP. "We deeply regret the harm
done to fund investors and have taken strong measures to prevent any
recurrence. Our focus going forward is to maintain the highest ethical
standards as we strive to deliver strong investment performance to our clients
around the world."
AMVESCAP has initiated changes across its operations to help ensure
clients' interests come first in all activities. This year, AMVESCAP
initiated a program to significantly increase its legal, compliance and
internal audit capabilities. AMVESCAP also created a company-wide compliance
reporting line that provides employees and others with a confidential way to
voice concerns about potentially improper activity. In September, we
introduced a new function, Operational Risk Management, and assigned a Chief
Risk Officer to better identify, manage and track risk within the areas of
finance, products and client operations. In addition, AIM Advisors
implemented a number of measures to strengthen controls and ensure compliance
with policies designed to protect the interest of fund shareholders. They
include:
* Strengthened daily monitoring of trading activities
* The imposition of a 2% redemption fee on additional funds believed to
be most vulnerable to harmful short-term trading
* The implementation of an enhanced exchange policy designed to limit
exchanges between funds
* An improved fair value pricing policy
AMVESCAP is a leading independent global investment manager dedicated to
helping people worldwide build their financial security. Operating under the
AIM, INVESCO and Atlantic Trust brands, AMVESCAP strives to deliver
outstanding products and services through a comprehensive array of retail and
institutional products for clients around the world. The Company is listed on
the London, New York and Toronto stock exchanges with the symbol "AVZ."
Additional information is available at http://www.amvescap.com .
This release may include statements that constitute "forward-looking
statements" under the United States securities laws. Forward-looking
statements include information concerning possible or assumed future results
of our operations, earnings, liquidity, cash flow and capital expenditures,
industry or market conditions, assets under management, acquisition activities
and the effect of completed acquisitions, debt levels and the ability to
obtain additional financing or make payments on our debt, regulatory
developments, demand for and pricing of our products and other aspects of our
business or general economic conditions. In addition, when used in this
report, words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends,"
"plans," "estimates," "projects" and future or conditional verbs such as
"will," "may," "could," "should" and "would," or any other statement that
necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking
statements.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They
involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although we make such statements
based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable, there can be no
assurance that actual results will not differ materially from our
expectations. We caution investors not to rely unduly on any forward-looking
statements. In connection with any forward-looking statements, you should
carefully consider the areas of risk described in our most recent Annual
Report on Form 20-F, as filed with the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC). You may obtain these reports from the SEC Web site
at http://www.sec.gov .
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