Just to illustrate the impact of the reformed broker voting rules in the USA, it’s interesting to look at Bank of America’s proxy votes results which were released to the SEC on Friday, 7th August. Last month, the SEC voted to exclude broker votes from all director elections starting 1st January 2010. Earlier this year Bank of […]
Read MoreUS investors angered by the meltdown in the US financial markets have a new resource to campaign for better governance. ShareOwners.org is a social networking site based on Ning, the community web tool said to have played a central role in the success of President Obama’s election campaign. ShareOwners has some big names behind its campaign […]
Read MoreUS investors concerned about the delays in the official announcements of voting results are not waiting for the SEC or New York Stock Exchange to make new rules but are taking matters into their own hands. Just as in Europe, best practice about voting results disclosure is extremely variable but proposals submitted by the New […]
Read MoreInvestors in two major US Internet Service Providers (ISPs), CenturyTel Inc and EarthLink Inc, have voted strongly in favour of a shareholder resolution which highlights Internet management practices at the ISPs and their role in Internet privacy and censorship. The resolutions, which were filed and voted on for the first time this year, attracted 30.49% […]
Read MoreIf Democratic New York Senator Charles ‘Chuck’ E Schumer has his way, shareholders of US-quoted companies can expect to see their ownership rights significantly enhanced. Schumer’s move was flagged in late April but reports are coming in that the Bill will be presented this week. Schumer’s Shareholder Bill of Rights Act of 2009 has a very clearly stated goal: […]
Read MoreLeading global investors, with assets totalling over $1.3 trillion, have written to US President Barack Obama urging the new administration to implement “critical” legal reforms to US financial markets and corporate governance practices. The institutions, representing the pension savings of some 15 million individuals globally, called for fundamental reforms as a means of restoring investor […]
Read MoreThe US has taken another step forward to bring the US proxy process into line with the rest of the world. Late last week (20/02/2009) the Delaware State Bar Association received a number of proposed amendments from its Corporation Law Section Council members. There are three key proposals on the table: Section 112: Access to […]
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