SEC Amendments To Rules Governing Proxy Advisory Firms
In a year of numerous regulatory amendments and proposals, Covid, newsworthy capital markets events, and endless related topics, and with only one blog a week, this one is a little behind, but with proxy season looming, it is timely nonetheless. In July 2020, the SEC adopted controversial final amendments to the rules governing proxy advisory firms. The proposed rules were published in November 2019 (see HERE). The final rules modified the proposed rules quite a bit to add more flexibility for proxy advisory businesses in complying with the underlying objectives of the rules.
The final rules, together with the amendments to Rule 14a-8 governing shareholder proposals in the proxy process, which were adopted in September 2020 (see HERE), will see a change in the landscape of this year’s proxy season for the first time in decades. However, certain aspects of the new rules are not required to be complied with until December 1, 2021.
The SEC has
