Date:    03/21/2000  8:30 PM

Subject: For proposed Regulation FD
 
I'm writing as one of the millions of investors (that is, corporate owners) who 
will benefit, if Regulation FD goes into effect, from having the same access to 
information from the companies they own as the Wall Street professionals who 
are, after all, not the owners. As Chairman Levitt points out, "the basic 
principle of fairness requires no less."
     
Not only will Regulation FD be a good thing in itself--it will also bring us 
closer to a world in which investment advice and securities underwriting will be
recognized as separate businesses which, when practiced by the same corporation,
can easily produce conflicts of interest that work against investors.
     
Some years ago I asked a friend who was a securities analyst, "Do you have any 
incentive to do anything other than state the truth as you see it?" He answered,
"Yes." To which I could only say, "That's not for me."
     
CFAs can perform a real service for investors. But not if they're under pressure
to give favorable ratings to securities their employers have underwritten.
     
Thank you for your efforts to create a fairer market for investors.
     
Richard Crowder