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May Day definition - finance
  1. In the United States, May 1, 1975, the day when fixed minimum brokerage commissions ended and brokers were free to set their own commission rates. Discount brokerage firms developed as a result. The end of fixed brokerage commissions planted the seeds for conflicts of interest between research analysts and investment bankers. Without inflated brokerage commissions to pay the salaries and bonuses of research analysts, they soon began to work more closely with investment bankers. By the time of the stock market boom in the late 1990s, research analysts in many instances were actively involved in helping the bankers at a firm take companies public in what was a crumbling of the so-called “Chinese Wall” that was supposed to separate the two departments.
  2. In Europe, May 1 is International WorkersÂ’ Day, which commemorates the struggle of working people to obtain decent working conditions and fair pay. It is celebrated throughout the world with the notable exception of the United States and Canada.

Webster's New World Finance and Investment Dictionary Copyright © 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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