The massive and underhanded effort by corporate insiders to impose limits on the sole source of independent research, analysis, and regulations has almost completely failed. What the CEO-funded fake dark money front group the Main Street Investors Coalition wanted was to regulate proxy advisory firms (independent and hired — or not — by investors) like proxy…
Tag: sec
The SEC should not limit the right of investors to sponsor shareholder resolutions: Guest Post from Timothy Smith, Walden Asset Management
The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has just announced its plans to present a revised Rule that will limit the ability of investors to file shareholder resolutions for votes at company stockholder meetings. This comes amidst a concerted effort by certain business groups to sharply limit shareholders’ ability to exercise these rights as owners of…
U.S. SEC to consider new guidance on investor use of proxy advisors – Reuters
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday said it would hold a meeting next week on whether to publish new guidance regarding the responsibilities of investors when relying on so-called proxy advisors.The proposal comes amid a push by the corporate lobby to rein in proxy advisors, which recommend how investors should vote in…
Second Supplement to our SEC Comment on Proxy Advisory Firms
Second supplement to our previous comment: We endorse the comment of Ken Bertsch of the Council of Institutional Investors fully and incorporate it by reference into our own. We note that there has yet to be a single specific example of a proxy vote that was incorrectly or harmfully cast as a result of inappropriate,…
SEC proposes eliminating auditor checks on controls at low-revenue biotechs – MarketWatch
As journalist Francine McKenna points out, this proposal is the result of massive lobbying money spent by the industry, which wants to free itself from the exact rules that were adopted following the Enron-era accounting disasters. These rules not only prevented similar problems, but they were crucial for establishing the credibility and stability of the…
Jim McRitchie’s Draft Petition to the SEC on Disclosure of Proxy Votes
Jim McRitchie (jm@corpgov.net) is seeing comments on his draft rulemaking petition for real-time disclosure of proxy votes. Corporations have facilitated the most dynamic economic growth in history. Addressing adverse externalities, like dark money and climate change, has been hampered by dispersed ownership. Mechanisms are needed to define common values and increase individual empowerment within corporate dominated…
SEC Chairman Clayton: Statement on Shareholder Proposals Seeking to Require Mandatory Arbitration Bylaw Provisions
SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on a shareholder proposal to require mandatory arbitration of shareholder claims: A domestic, publicly-listed company has received a shareholder proposal that would require the company to take steps to adopt mandatory arbitration provisions. The company has asked the staff of the Division of Corporation Finance for informal guidance on whether the…
John Wilcox: Proxy Plumbing Comment
Longtime proxy solicitor John Wilcox has submitted one of the most thoughtful comment on the SEC’s proxy roundtable issues. No one is more familiar with the issues raised by the current complexity of the system that provides information and voting mechanics. An excerpt: The failures of the proxy system have traditionally been blamed on back-office…
On Governance: What Does the Near Future Hold for Proxy Advisors?
The Conference Board’s list of predictions about the outcome of the SEC’s proxy roundtable hearing looks more like a wish list than anything grounded in probability, with the exception of the comments by the Conference Board’s own Doug Chia: Governance Center Executive Director, Doug Chia observed coming out of the SEC roundtable, “What seemed to…
