Two groups of nuns, including one that puts living a life of peacemaking at the centre of its work, are gearing up for a fight with the US financial regulator over proposed shareholder rules.

The Ursuline Convent of the Sacred Heart in Toledo and the Dominican Sisters of Peace based in Columbus, Ohio, want the Securities and Exchange Commission to reverse its plans to introduce rules that would make it harder for smaller shareholders to submit proposals at annual meetings of public businesses in the US.

In a letter addressed to SEC chair Jay Clayton, Sister Barbara Kane, justice promoter at the Dominican Sisters of Peace, which has about $300m in assets, said: “Changing the rules governing shareholder resolutions is a solution without a problem.”

She added: “I understand that the SEC must balance the needs of shareholders with those of businesses but these changes are putting the scale on the side of business which puts our investments in danger.”

via Nuns berate SEC over planned shareholder rules | Financial Times