TyraTech, a maker of environmentally friendly pesticides, became the latest American company to float in London yesterday as growing concerns about the IPO drain from New York to the City prompted the formation of a heavyweight Wall Street panel.

The panel is being set up by Eliot Spitzer, the former attorney-general of New York who is now governor of the state. Mr Spitzer, who has given the panel until June next year to propose legislative changes, said yesterday that “the financial world has changed and we must change with it to retain our leadership position”. TyraTech, a Florida compan that raised £25 million from floating on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London, said that the cost and inconvenience of strict American listing requirements, introduced after the collapse of Enron, were key to its decision to float overseas.

Douglas Armstrong, the chief executive, said: “The Sarbanes-Oxley regulations undoubtedly played a part in our decision to list in London because they place a heavy burden on small-cap companies in terms of time and cost.”

The flotation of TyraTech takes the number of US firms on AIM to about 70.

The impact of rigid US regulations has prompted a flurry of initiatives, including the formation of a new panel this week that will be chaired by Eric Danello, the New York insurance superintendent, who last week brokered a multibillion-dollar insurance deal to ensure that the reconstruction of Ground Zero, scene of the terrorist hijacking attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, will be completed.

The panel will include Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, and Chuck Prince, head of Citigroup, and is being formed a week after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed to water down some onerous elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

It will seek to modernise financial services regulation in New York State in an attempt to reverse the flow of business to London, but without losing its integrity. The heads of AIG and MetLife will also sit on the panel, alongside Steve Cutler, a former head of enforcement at the SEC and now JPMorgan’s general counsel. The creation of the panel follows a U-turn by President Bush in February, when he admitted that the US had overreacted to scandals such as WorldCom and Enron. His comments came after a report commissioned by Michael Bloomberg, New York’s Mayor found in January that the surge in red tape could starve the country of as much as $30 billion in revenues within four years and relegate the city to a regional marketplace.

The agenda

Tasks for the new panel:

— Examine further changes to Sarbanes-Oxley

— Pave the way for more arbitration and fewer lawsuits

— Adapt rules from FSA and other European regulators to form global rulebook

— Draw up a set of accounting standards to bring the US into line with the rest of the world

— Ease immigration restrictions facing skilled nonUS professional workers

— Look into creating a special international financial services zone to benefit overseas companies

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive