A recent call to end the practice of broker-dealers voting in director elections promises to rekindle a long-running debate about the mechanics of proxy voting and shareholder communications practices.
As Compliance Week reported last week, a special committee impaneled by the New York Stock Exchange to examine proxy voting issues has published six recommendations, including a ban on allowing broker-dealers to vote in director elections when their shareholder customers are silent. The committee, the NYSE Proxy Working Group, advised that NYSE Rule 452—also called the broker-vote rule or the 10-day rule—be amended to make director elections a “non-routine” matter.
