The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has shelved proposals that would have limited the power of shareholder advisory firms in corporate decision making. The SEC is scrapping a portion of its proposal that would have forced proxy advisers to submit their voting recommendations to companies for checking before distributing them to investors in advance of […]
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Virtual AGMs: Time to prepare Companies, regulators and markets are increasingly realising that the AGM season will be severely disrupted by the COVID19 pandemic. As social distancing becomes the norm, traditional annual meetings where shareholders gather to hear CEO presentations and ask questions of management are simply no longer feasible. Minerva has written to quoted […]
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SEC fallout grows as row rages over amendments A prominent SEC Commissioner has admitted that the US regulator needs to rethink parts of its proxy voting rule amendments. Speaking at the Council of Institutional Investors’ 2020 conference this week, Commissioner Elad Roisman said the regulator may reconsider parts of its proposals to appease market commentators. […]
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SEC urged to unleash sweeping changes to proxy system As the SEC’s Proxy Plumbing saga rumbles on, the Commission has signalled that public companies, shareholders and other stakeholders in the US may soon get the transparency in the proxy system that many have been demanding. The investor advisory committee to the US Securities and Exchange […]
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SEC’s back to work priorities: proxy plumbing & human capital reporting As the SEC returns to work after the shutdown, Commission chairman, Jay Clayton has started to lay out his departments work for the coming year. During a conference call with the Investor Advisory Committee, (Thurs 6 Feb 19) Clayton announced that fellow Commissioner Elad […]
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Proxy Plumbing: SEC Re-opens Investigations Plans to review US proxy plumbing infrastructure “long overdue, but very welcome”. The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it will re-examine the US proxy voting system. The US securities regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is inviting comments on its proposal and will host a round-table this autumn to […]
Read MoreEU capital market union is being hampered by a silo-ed approach to corporate governance policy, according to a report, Governance Policy in the European Union: Through an Investor’s Lens, published by the CFA Institute. The report, the result of engagement with more than 30 investment practitioners, governance experts, and other stakeholders from across Europe, suggests that a joined-up […]
Read MoreBack in September 2011, the FT ran a story exploring the frustrations felt by investors over complexity and opacity in the voting chain (“Call for clarity in proxy voting process”, FTfm, 12th September 2011). In many ways the article was no different to much of the other hand-wringing that has characterised commentary on this subject. […]
Read MoreThe simple but powerful statement of solidarity with the notion of a free society that articulated the public reaction to the recent horrific events at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris shows just how important freedom is in our modern age. Not just freedom of expression, but freedom of belief and movement too. “Je […]
Read MoreApril is probably not the ideal month to launch a consultation for anyone involved in corporate governance, nevertheless the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) issued a call for comment on its proposed best practice guidance for the proxy research industry. The consultation was scheduled to close on June 23rd, however following representation from stakeholders, the CSA has granted […]
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