In 1953 the New York Stock Exchange launched “Own Your Share of American Business,” the longest marketing campaign in its history. As Janice Traflet documents in A Nation of Small Shareholders: Marketing Wall Street after World War II (see my review essay), the campaign had two purposes. It would restore profits to retail brokerage, and […]
Save Annual Meetings! URGENT: Tell the SEC to Protect Shareholder Rights! Comments due July 8, 2025. Save Annual Meetings: Background The SEC is considering a rule that would allow closed-end funds to skip their annual shareholder meetings. This would weaken investor oversight and accountability. You may not own closed-end funds, but if they take away […]
NYSE Seeks to Delete AGM Requirement Join me (James McRitchie) in commenting to the SEC on a rule to exempt closed-end funds from the annual shareholder meeting requirement. Public companies could be next. This move would be bad corporate governance, the opposite of increasing accountability. Comments are due today, but the SEC also considers late […]
Listing standards change sought by the Council of Institutional Investors (CII). CII filed petitions with the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ, asking both to limit listings of companies with dual-class share structures. They have taken the right approach to address a growing problem. I hope it ends a worldwide race to the […]
A Nation of Small Shareholders: Marketing Wall Street after World War II (Studies in Industry and Society) by Janice M. Traflet (link to buy) explains how an ad campaign began to transform American finance. With all the current focus on Main Street investors, A Nation of Small Shareholders could be revisited and transformed to include […]
Recommended this week. TK Kerstetter, Chairman, NYSE Governance Services – Corporate Board Member Scott Cutler, EVP, NYSE discuss Director Orientation & Onboarding on their 3/16/2014 show “This Week in the Boardroom” (more…)
I urge readers to support the June 20th petition by the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) to the NYSE and Nasdaq for the exchanges to require listed companies to elect directors by majority vote in uncontested elections. CII’s letters to both exchanges are posted here. (more…)
The deadline for comments on this important NYSE rulemaking that must be approved by the SEC is today, March 15, 2013, so act now or forever regret not taking action. See the rulemaking and comments already posted to SEC site. I’m concerned that provisions meant to facilitate voting on broker platforms may lead us right back into what […]
Reed’s ($REED) is one of the stocks in my portfolio. Their annual meeting is coming up tomorrow, on 12/21/2012. ProxyDemocracy.org doesn’t collect votes on REED, probably because it is a micro-cap with little or no institutional ownership. I voted with all managements recommendations. (more…)
This Week in the Boardroom: 9/23/10. NYSE Commission on Corporate Governance Report reviewed by: Scott Cutler, Executive Vice President, NYSE Euronext Stephen Lamb, Partner, Paul Weiss Larry Sonsini, Chair, NYSE Commission on Corporate Governance
NYSE Euronext (NYX) today released the final report of the NYSE–sponsored Commission on Corporate Governance. The Commission on Corporate Governance, chaired by Larry W. Sonsini, Chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, is a diverse and independent commission established in the fall of 2009 to examine core governance principles that could be widely supported by […]
Janet Kissane, SVP & Corporate Secretary NYSE Euronext Legal & Government Affairs Dear Ms. Kissane: Earlier this month the NYSE announced it intends to amend NYSE Rule 452 to prohibit members from voting uninstructed shares if the matter to be voted on relates to executive compensation, including “say-on-pay” proposals, at meetings occurring after July 21, 2010. An exception will be […]
Noteworthy interview with Glenn Tyranski, Senior Vice President for Financial Compliance at the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Tyranski is a financial expert and is responsible for the financial reviews of prospective and existing listed companies. In this interview posted at BulletProofBlog, Mr. Tyranski discusses how compliance and financial oversight affect listed companies, the process […]