FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                              2001-106
                              
                              
                              
                              
    SEC PROVIDES NEW RELIEF REGARDING ISSUER REPURCHASES

     Washington,  DC,  September  28,  2001  --In  order  to
facilitate  the continued orderly operation of the  markets,
the  Commission today announced that it has used its general
exemptive  authority  under Section  36  of  the  Securities
Exchange   Act   of  1934  to  temporarily  modify   certain
conditions of Rule 10b-18 for issuers that repurchase  their
own  common  stock.   Today's  exemptive  relief,  which  is
described below, is not an extension of the emergency orders
issued on September 14 and 21.  The relief provided in those
orders expires today.  Today's relief extends from October 1
through   October  12.   It  is  the  Commission's   current
expectation that further relief following October  12,  2001
will not be necessary.

     The   Exemptive   Order   temporarily   eases   certain
conditions of Rule 10b-18 for issuers repurchasing their own
common  stock.  First, issuers whose common stock trades  at
sufficiently  high levels (meeting an average daily  trading
volume and public float test) may effect purchases up to ten
minutes before the scheduled close of trading on the primary
market  for  such  security.  An issuer's purchase  may  not
constitute  the  opening transaction.   Second,  the  volume
condition  for  issuer repurchases has been eased  to  allow
purchases of 100 percent of trading volume.

     The Exemptive Order also provides that public companies
that  repurchase  their  shares  during  the  period  ending
October   12,   2001   will  not  have  adverse   accounting
consequences  under  the  pooling of  interests  provisions.
After the expiration of the Exemptive Order, acquisitions by
companies of their own equity securities once again will  be
governed  by the existing accounting literature and  related
Commission  rules  and  staff  interpretations  related   to
pooling-of-interests accounting in the same manner  as  they
were  before  the Commission issued its Emergency  Order  on
September 14, 2001.
     
     
     
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