"Bank One is one of the largest banks operating in my home state of Michigan, and I congratulate them on standing up in favor of honest accounting of stock options. Bank One joins a small but growing group of companies like Coca-Cola, Boeing, the Washington Post, and Winn-Dixie, that are willing to take the lead in ending the fiction that stock option compensation has no cost. Bank One is the first financial institution in the United States to take this step, but I hope it is not the last.

"The International Accounting Standards Board in London also took action today, when its 13 Board Members agreed unanimously to issue by the end of the year an Exposure Draft proposing an International Financial Reporting Standard to require companies to expense stock options. This accounting standard, if finalized, would affect not only companies in Europe and around the globe, but would also require the U.S. standard-setting body, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), to reconsider the issue here at home.

"Yesterday, a vote was blocked in the Senate on the Levin-McCain-Corzine-Biden-Graham amendment to direct FASB to take appropriate action on stock option accounting. But the issue isn't going away, and we will continue to fight to bring honest accounting to stock options."