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New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., in his role as investment advisor to the New York City Pension Funds, today announced that the Funds have ceased the lending of securities in the 19 firms listed on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ‘naked’ short-selling list, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

“I am deeply concerned by the damage to the long-term values of the Funds’ investments in major financial companies that is being caused by speculators’ reckless short sales of those companies’ shares,” Thompson said in a letter to the Bank of New York Mellon, the City’s custodial bank. “It is of particular concern that to cover short sales, speculators could potentially seek to borrow those shares from the Funds; Securities Lending Program.”

The letter is available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.

Thompson, in the letter, noted that pursuant to the Securities Lending Authorization Agreement of April 1, 2004, between the Comptroller’s Office and the Bank of New York, he is directing Bank of New York Mellon to cease lending any shares in the following companies:

BNP Paribas Securities Corp.; Bank of America Corporation; Barclays PLC; Citigroup, Inc.; Credit Suisse Group; Daiwa Securities Group, Inc.; Deutsche Bank Group AG; Allianz SE; Goldman Sachs Group, inc.; Royal Bank ADS; HSBC Holdings PLC ADS; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc.; Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.; Morgan Stanley; UBS AG; Freddie Mac; and Fannie Mae.

The New York City Pension Funds are the: New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), New York City Police Pension Fund, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund, New York City Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) and New York City Board of Education Retirement System. Collectively, the Funds hold more than $100 billion in assets.

The Comptroller serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of four of the five Funds and is investment advisor to, and custodian of, all five. As investment advisor, the Comptroller has the fiduciary responsibility of investing and protecting the Funds for more than 237,000 retirees and beneficiaries and more than 344,000 City and City affiliated employees. Investing in the City's pension funds is one of the Comptroller's most critical tasks.

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