On January 16, 2014, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) released proposed amendments to the corporate governance disclosure requirements under Ontario securities legislation regarding the disclosure of the representation of women on boards and in senior management of public companies and the disclosure of director term limits. The Canadian Securities Administrators, the umbrella organization of Canada's provincial and territorial securities regulators, has not participated in this initiative and, if adopted, the proposed amendments would apply to reporting issuers in Ontario only.
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On January 27, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White outlined in remarks to the 41st Annual Securities Regulation Institute her agency's 2014 agenda, promising "incredibly active enforcement" across "the entire industry spectrum."
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CFA Institute: Many investors may underestimate the risks associated with ETFs. What are they?
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Shareholder proposals are a staple of annual shareholders meetings. In the U.S. and Canada, proposals are mainly made by labour-affiliated investors, individual activists, and social-, policy- or religious- oriented investors. They cover a wide range of topics from corporate governance to corporate social responsibility.
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On November 21, 2013, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) issued its 2014 Corporate Governance Policy Updates applicable to issuers holding their shareholder meetings on or after February 1, 2014. Updates for the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific were released. For the first time, ISS has opened a consultation period (which expires on February 14, 2014) related to long-term policy changes beyond the 2014 proxy season for a number of specific topics. ISS is shifting its focus from specific seasonal guidance to a continual focus on policy development over the year.
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In 2013, our principal stock exchanges and securities regulators updated requirements for listings and raising capital and proposed further changes in these areas. This bulletin summarizes some of those changes and how they may affect your company in 2014.
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Exchange Act Rule 14a-4(a)(3) concerns the "unbundling" of separate matters that are submitted to a shareholder vote by a company or any other person soliciting proxy authority. The SEC staff has issued guidance on the unbundling of proxy proposals. The guidance takes the form of three frequently asked questions, or FAQs. In each of the three different scenarios posed in the FAQs, the SEC staff states the proxy proposals need not be unbundled.
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But relative to the 2007-2009 recession, the current capex-poor downturn is puny, a cash-flow review shows.
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Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange will have to disclose how many women they have on their boards and in their executive ranks as well as set targets for the future, the OSC said Thursday.
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