Melissa Klein Aguilar

Triennial could be a trend in 2011: If companies have their way, most shareholders will get their say on pay every three years. So far, the majority of the 72 companies that filed their proxies as of Dec. 30 are recommending shareholder advisory votes on executive pay every three years. That’s according to a tally […]

The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission capped off 2010 by closing another massive bribery investigation. Paris-based telecommunications company Alcatel-Lucent and three of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay more $137 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to foreign government officials to win […]

Financial firms have made some progress in developing risk appetite frameworks and building their information technology infrastructures in the wake of the global financial crisis, but they have “considerably more” work to do to strengthen these practices, according to a group of global financial regulators. In particular, the aggregation of risk data remains a challenge […]

The nation’s largest public pension fund is ringing in the new year by putting pressure on at least four companies companies to adopt a majority vote standard that would require any director who receives a withhold vote greater than 50 percent of the votes cast to resign. The $221 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission closed out the year with its first non-prosecution agreement under the Enforcement Cooperation Initiative launched earlier this year. The honor goes to Atlanta-based children’s clothing marketer Carter’s Inc., which won’t be charged with any violations of the federal securities laws relating to SEC allegations of fraud and insider trading by […]

Those tasked with prioritizing their company’s corporate governance to-do lists for 2011 might want to recheck them to see where succession planning falls on that list. Chances are it’s not near the top, but it probably should be, according to results of a survey by executive search firm Korn/Ferry. The vast majority of global executives report […]

Required reading for any businesses that collect information from customers on the Web (that would be most of you): Two reports out for comment recommend changes to the ways companies use and manage the online information they collect about consumers. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce are each seeking comment on their […]

Now that the Dodd-Frank Act forces companies to give shareholders a say on executive pay, the next question they need to answer is how often those advisory votes will occur. That question of frequency has set off a small battle between some companies that want to limit say-on-pay votes to every three years and shareholder […]

The expected post-Morrison decline in federal securities class-action filings hasn’t yet materialized. Thanks to a second half jolt, the pace of U.S. filings is on track to exceed last year’s total, according to the latest study by NERA Economic Consulting. Following a slowdown during the first half of the year, NERA projects federal securities class-action […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission pushed out five more rule proposals in its last open meeting of the year in an effort to fulfill its Dodd-Frank Act mandate. The Commission voted on Dec. 15 to publish five more rule proposals stemming from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act for comment. Two of […]