The Securities and Exchange Commission may have lost the battle on mandatory shareholder proxy access, but it did quietly enact a new rule that paves the way for investors to put director nominees on the proxy at companies via shareholder resolution. On the same day earlier this month that the SEC announced it will not […]
Reese Darragh
Posted inFrom the Archive
BofA Guilty of Violating SOX Whistleblower Protection Provision
Bank Of America was ordered to reinstate a former employee and fined $930,000 for violating the whistleblower protection provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said the bank was found guilty of wrongfully terminating the employee shortly after BofA acquired the troubled Countrywide mortgage company. “It’s clear […]
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Shareholder Proposal Rule in Effect Today
The shareholder proposal rule goes into effect today, barring any further announcement from the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend its effective date. The lesser known rule was finalized together with the controversial proxy access rule back in April of this year. In an earlier statement from the SEC where it confirmed it would not […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Regulators Eye Chinese Wall for Reverse Mergers
After a series of high-profile frauds and stock collapses by Chinese companies that went public in the United States using reverse mergers, major U.S. stock exchanges are putting new rules in place to make such maneuvers more rigorous and respectable. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq recently added new rules that require companies wanting […]
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Compensation at Federal Contractors to Go Under the Lens
Come next year, compliance officers at federal contractors will have more than the complex government project bidding process to worry about. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a division of the Department of Labor that oversees compliance programs at federal contractors, issued an advance notice on Aug. 10 announcing that it will launch […]
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Companies Improve Level of Risk Oversight in 2011
Companies are engaging in a higher level of risk oversight, resulting in more board members and board-level committees in charge of overseeing risk, according to a study published by Deloitte. Deloitte reviewed the 2011 proxy disclosure statements of the top 200 companies listed in the S&P 500 and found that the overall positive trend is […]
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Obama to Cut Red Tape on Crowdfunding for Start-Up Companies
Tucked into President Obama’s jobs speech yesterday was a plan that could make it easier for small companies to raise money from individuals, more commonly referred to as “crowdfunding.” “We’re also planning to cut away the red tape that prevents too many rapidly growing start-up companies from raising capital and going public,” the President said. […]
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SEC Not Seeking Rehearing in Proxy Access Litigation
The Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed yesterday that it will not seek a rehearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., which vacated its proxy access rule in July. In addition, the agency has also confirmed that it will not seek any judicial review of the appeals court’s decision at the Supreme Court […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
(Dis)Closing in on Perfection?
Pushing social policy by way of corporate disclosure is not exactly new to federal securities law. It is, however, becoming more common. Among the oldest social policies targeted by disclosure requirements has been executive compensation, the subject of ever-increasing rules and disclosures since the 1990s—even if those rules haven’t succeeded in curbing executive pay. The […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Large Banks Forced to Contemplate Their Mortality
No company plans to go bankrupt, but new rules due out early next year will force large banks to start doing precisely that. The Federal Reserve Board and Federal Depository Insurance Corp. are finishing rules that will require large banks to file resolution plans and credit exposure reports—essentially, plans from banks that regulators consider too […]