NYSE calls in regulators over former CEO's pay

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday called in securities regulators and the state attorney general Eliot Spitzer to investigate the circumstances that led to a $188m (€147.8m) windfall for Richard Grasso, its former chief executive and chairman.

Mr Grasso collected $139.5m(€109.7m) in deferred compensation and other benefits. It later emerged that he was owed another $48m(€37.7m), which he decided not to take up after widespread uproar broke out over the level of his pay.

In a letter to the regulators, the NYSE said "serious damage has been inflicted on the exchange by unreasonable compensation of the previous chairman and CEO, and by failures of governance and fiduciary responsibility that led to the compensation excesses as well as other injuries".

The SEC said it had opened a formal investigation into the findings of an internal NYSE investigation by former prosecutor Dan Webb.

Mr Webb had concluded his investigation in mid-December after interviewing more than 60 people.