Bush Urges 'new Era of Integrity'

The US president, George Bush, today delivered a speech to Wall Street demanding "a new era of integrity" in American corporate life following the Enron collapse and WorldCom fraud.

He lay the blame for the malaise among the once seemingly invincible companies and New York stock exchange on the "corporate abuses" of the 1990s - when Bill Clinton was in power - and put forward a series of new measures, including a doubling of the maximum jail term for financial fraud to 10 years.

"The business pages of American newspapers should not read like a scandal sheet," he said.

"I am calling for a new ethic of personal responsibility in the business community - an ethic that will increase investor confidence, make employees proud of their companies and regain the trust of the American people."

He announced the creation of a "financial crimes Swat team" by executive order and - asking for corporate cooperation - said that independent directors should form the majority on company boards and shareholders should approve all stock option plans.

Other measures include enhancing the ability of the federal government's securities and exchange commission (SEC) to freeze improper payments to corporate executives while a company is under investigation, and persuading publicly traded companies to prevent corporate officers from receiving loans from their own companies.

The attempt to exert some control over the escalating crisis in the US comes as fresh accusations have been levelled at the president over his own business dealings.

Democrats have unearthed an investigation into Mr Bush by financial watchdogs a decade ago while he was a director of the oil company Harken Energy, and are calling for details of the inquiry to be published in full.

But the president also hit back at the Democrat-led Senate, saying it should do more to help his mission to restore the reputation of the corporations.

"The Senate needs to act quickly and responsibly so I can sign a good bill in the autumn," he said.

The campaign for business and accounting reform was sparked by the collapse of Enron, but has found new momentum as investors reacted furiously to the huge amounts earned by executives as their companies were careering toward collapse.

"More scandals are hiding in corporate America," the president said.

"We must find and expose them now so we can begin rebuilding the confidence of our people and the momentum of our markets."