NYSE Looks for Second Home

The New York Stock Exchange intends to build a second trading floor, outside lower Manhattan, to ensure continuity of the world's largest market in the event of further terrorist attacks.

The exchange is abandoning plans for a new building across the street from its present location in Broad Street. The NYSE has been in the lower Manhattan area for 210 years and is just a few blocks from the site that was occupied by the World Trade Center.

At a board meeting, the exchange also approved proposals to tighten rules on corporate governance for listed companies, including a requirement that shareholders vote on share option awards.

Richard Grasso, chairman of the exchange, said no decision had yet been made on where the second trading floor would be located. "We are looking inside the five boroughs as well as outside the five boroughs."

Damage from the September 11 terrorist attacks forced much of the financial community to look for offices elsewhere.