TheCorporateCounsel.net

November 19, 2013

Proxy Advisor Regulation: A European Perspective

With the SEC’s proxy advisor roundtable coming up in a few weeks – December 5th – the debate over the role of those firms is reaching a fever pitch. In this podcast, Sarah Wilson, CEO of the UK’s Manifest, weighs in on the debate over proxy advisor regulation, including:

– What is Manifest? What is the proxy advisor market like in Europe?
– How are proxy advisors regulated right now in Europe?
– What is the proposed global set of best practices for proxy advisors?
– What do you think of the criticism of proxy advisors in the US?

This Laurel Hill piece gives a good summary of the debate. Also check out this free program in DC on December 3rd entitled “The Realities of Stewardship for Institutional Owners, Activist Investors and Proxy Advisors.”

Industry Task Force Makes Capital Formation Recommendations

An industry task force – the “Equity Formation Task Force” – which might well be seen as a successor to the IPO Task Force, recently presented a report to the Treasury Department recommending a few additional measures to facilitate capital formation. As noted in this MoFo blog by Anna Pinedo, the report repeats a number of the recommendations made by other groups, such as calling for the SEC to propose a framework for Section 3(b)(2) (or Regulation A+) offerings as required by the JOBS Act, and a pilot program on wider tick sizes.

Arthur Levitt: On Twitter!

Come check out the longest-serving SEC Chair Arthur Levitt, age 82, on Twitter – his handle is @ArthurLevitt. His tweets are already making news, such as this WSJ piece on how direct data feeds should be used to monitor employee trades. Love this pic of Arthur & a fish he caught…

– Broc Romanek