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Tag Archive for ‘James Hyatt’

SEC Approves Proxy Access for Shareholders

Given the green light by Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved and released a long-awaited rule on procedures under which shareholders can get their nominees for directors included in corporate proxy materials. Under the new rule, shareholders seeking access to proxies would have to own at least 3% of the total voting power entitled to vote at an annual meeting.

SEC Seeks Comments on New Financial Rules

As the Securities and Exchange Commission prepares to deal with a deluge of new rule-making tasks tied to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, agency Chairman Mary Schapiro announced a new system for soliciting public input on rules. “We are inviting public comment even before the various rules are proposed and before the official comment periods have begun,” she said.

SEC Explores Changes to U.S. Shareholder Proxy System

The commission outlined a concept release seeking public comment on proposals to “promote greater efficiency and transparency in the U.S. proxy system and enhance the accuracy and integrity of the shareholder vote.” And SEC Commissioners, with no debate, unanimously approved issuing the concept release for a 90-day public comment period.

Proxy Advisors Find Themselves in the Spotlight

Proxy advisory services play a key role because institutional holders turn to them for advice when voting billions of shares at annual meetings. Questions are now being raised about the influence of the services and whether more formal oversight is needed. As a result, proxy advisory services may be about to start receiving their own report cards for a change.

Democrats Introduce Political Contributions Legislation

Democrats officially launched their long-expected legislative response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling freeing up corporations, unions and other groups to make political contributions. Five U.S. Senators released their version of the DISCLOSE Act – an acronym for the “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections” Act. Similar legislation was introduced in the House. (File Photo)

Citizens United and Political Contributions: The Story So Far

Even before corporations and other groups start writing checks to exercise their new-found freedom, the Citizens United case appears likely to emerge as a key litmus test in the process of selecting a successor to Justice John Paul Stevens, who has announced his plan to retire after the current Supreme Court term.

Investors Introduce Record Number of Climate Change Resolutions

The resolutions, up 40% from last year, have been presented to some of the nation’s largest coal companies, electric power and oil producers, home builders, big box retailers, financial institutions and other businesses thought to be not adequately disclosing and managing potential climate-related business impacts.

Apple Increases Its Monitoring of Suppliers

The company says it conducted on-site audits at 102 facilities in 2009, up from 83 in 2008, and trained 133,000 workers, supervisors and managers, a sharp increase from 27,000 a year earlier.