Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Corporate & Securities Law Blogs -> Institutional Shareholder Services -- Corporate Governance Blog

Corporate & Securities Law

: Institutional Shareholder Services -- Corporate Governance Blog

SEC Plans to Consider Proxy Access on May 20Submitted by: Ted Allen, Publications

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to consider proposals to allow shareholders to nominate board candidates to appear on management proxy statements when the commission meets on May 20.

The meeting will start at 10 a.m. and will be held at the SEC?s headquarters in Washington.

The details have not been released, but the commission likely will propose several access alternatives. SEC officials have said they are looking at whether to have a sliding scale (based on company size) for the minimum economic stake required to nominate board candidates; that percentage would be smaller at large-cap firms.

?We want to ensure that any procedural requirements for access are rational?and not a means to thwart effective investor participation,? SEC chair Mary Schapiro said during a speech to investors in early April.

The SEC has been grappling with the thorny issue of proxy access for decades. The commission proposed a market-wide rule in 2003 that called for a two-step process for shareholders to obtain access, but then abandoned that proposal in 2005 amid opposition from companies and Bush administration officials. In 2007, the SEC proposed a 5 percent ownership requirement (and various disclosure mandates) for shareholders to file bylaw proposals to establish access procedures. Investor advocates complained that the ownership and disclosure standards were too rigorous, while many companies opposed the idea of access altogether. A divided commission ultimately adopted a rule to bar investors from filing access proposals.

Full post as published by Institutional Shareholder Services -- Corporate Governance Blog on May 12, 2009 (boomark / email).