American Stock Exchange - Essay Example

In January 2003, Spitzer reached a "global" settlement with top Wall Street firms. They pledged to pay $1.4 billion to settle federal and state charges. Bernard Ebbers was head of WorldCom. WorldCom had merged with one of the biggest technological companies MCI in April 2003. This was one of the biggest technological mergers. This merger had broken up monopolies such as AT&T that had dominated the telephone industry. But after the scandal, WorldCom was changed. The company filed for bankruptcy.

For a time, WorldCom (WCOM) was the United States' second-largest long-distance phone company. (Liqi, 2006).PART - IIEconomic Functions of Financial IntermediariesFinancial intermediaries are involved in performing the very important economic function of channelizing the excess funds that depositors have, towards satisfying the fund requirements of the borrowers. Financial intermediaries aggregate small amounts of funds into big pools, then invest it in a diverse portfolio of primary securities to achieve more efficient diversification of risk than an individual investor.

In this way, financial intermediaries are able to use savings that would otherwise not have been available to produce economic activity. Brokers' Roles in Financial MarketsBrokers perform a very important function in financial markets. They obtain relevant information that is required by the clients to make informed investment decisions. This information ranges from market conditions to government regulations. In addition, brokers carry out clients' portfolio investment planning and provide guidance to the clients about the most optimal investment decisions.

Brokers have a high level of control of the financial market. However, the advent of the internet has brought about changes in the way businesses are conducted. The financial markets are no exception. NASDAQ makes use of the internet to provide value-added information to clients.