What with the fall of insider-trader Ivan Boesky, the market crash on Black Monday, and the recent release of a film, “Wall Street”, which excoriates the whole industry, it hasn’t been exactly a happy holiday time, imagewise, for the securities industry. The public could presumably be excused for leaping to less than favorable conclusions. .T So at a time of image blackness for brokers, it was heartening to see that over the holiday period at least one broker among others in Canada, had done something to lighten and brighten the picture. On a special day, Merrill Lynch Canada arranged it so that some 260 senior citizens from old-age homes and community organizations were able to make free phone calls to loved ones in almost any part of the world. The seniors came to the company’s trading floors in 10 cities across the country to make their calls, and the happy talk reached as far as El Salvador and Saudi Arabia.
It cost the company, we’re informed, something in the order of $75,000 to do this for the elderly people. Well worth it, too, if the whole project does nothing more than restore a little warmth and sense of integrity to a badly-bruised industry. Three holiday cheers to Merrill Lynch.
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