Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is seeking public comments on proposed updates to its benchmark proxy voting guidelines. A comment period is underway, through Oct. 31, with final policy updates expected in November. All updates will affect the 2013 proxy season. Among the notable change under consideration: Majority-Supported Shareholder Proposals ISS is proposing to […]
Joe Mont
Posted inFrom the Archive
SEC to Propose Rule for Security-Based Swap Dealers
On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to finally unveil proposed rules regarding capital, margin, and segregation requirements for security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants. As directed by the Dodd-Frank, the SEC’s rules are to be separate from, but coordinated with, those hammered out nearly a year ago by the Commodity […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Crowded Funding: Ahead of SEC, Small-Business Investing Gets Busy
Sometime early next year, the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to propose rules that would pave the way for “equity crowdfunding,” harnessing the groupthink of social media as a tool for capital investment. Small public companies (those with revenues of less than $5 million) could be able to raise up to $1 million using […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Dodd-Frank Opponents Consider New Legal Challenges
While some critics of the Dodd-Frank Act have called for a full repeal of the legislation on Capitol Hill, the more immediate strategy is to chip away at an array of its provisions through lawsuits challenging the cost-benefit calculations required in the rulemaking and through other legal challenges. Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce […]
Posted inUncategorized
The SEC’s Conflict Minerals Rule Leaves Unanswered Questions
Outside legal counsel will likely never put it so bluntly, but whenever a new regulation emerges one of their tasks is to determine how much wiggle room a company can count on. Analysis of recent Securities and Exchange Commission rulemaking on the tracking and disclosure of the use of so-called “conflict minerals” in the supply […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Is the Conflict Minerals Rule Next to Face a Legal Challenge?
As lawsuits continue to take aim at rulemaking pushed upon regulators by the Dodd-Frank Act, the mandated disclosure of “conflict minerals” in supply chains could be next on the hit list. On Thursday morning, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and the National Foreign Trade Council […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
U.S. Chamber, Oil Companies Sue Over SEC’s Extraction Payments Rule
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined with associations representing the oil industry over the Security and Exchange Commission’s to legally challenge a regulatory mandate to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights. As the Chamber did in scoring a legal victory against a “proxy access” rule last July, concerns over an inadequate cost-benefit […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Investor Advocates Call on SEC to Rethink Private Offering Solicitations
A quartet of high-profile investor advocacy groups have stepped up their efforts to protest rulemaking by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would allow the advertising of private offerings, with one dropping a thinly-veiled threat that legal action might be among the weapons they wield. In August, the SEC approved a proposed rule to eliminate […]
Posted inTechnology
New Social Media Privacy Laws Raise Questions for Financial Firms
Across the nation, states are passing new laws that prevent employers from demanding passwords and access to the personal social media accounts of their employees or potential hires. In a time when the line between personal and business use of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook is increasingly blurred, however, these laws may have unintended consequences that […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Roundtable Biographies – 091812
On September 18, Compliance Week and Crowe Horwath presented an editorial roundtable at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles. The focus of the roundtable, which was moderated by Compliance Week Editor Matt Kelly, was on mobile devices, social media, and data security. Attendees’ full biographies are below. Stella Acosta Director of Internal Audit & SOX […]
