Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council is taking soundings on whether the US exchange should adopt corporate governance best practices for its listed companies, and, if so, what they should be.
The Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council is appointed by the Nasdaq board Stock Market to provide advice on public policy issues related to listed companies and includes leading investor advocates Ann Yerger of the Council of Institutional Investors and Peter Clapman of TIAA-CREF (retired).
A total of nine proposals are open for discussion which Nasdaq is proposing as ‘comply or explain’ principles. In a clear reference to the influence of its European platform, NASDAQ OMX, the consultation signals a departure from the traditional US rules-based approch to corporate governance commenting that “this model offers flexibility to companies and transparency to investors and allows practices to evolve in a logical manner.’
Comments are open until Friday, October 30, 2009 and can be sent by email or post, Full details can be found in the consultation (see below).