The SEC reversed a Bush Administration rule which prevented shareholder resolutions that ask companies to address the financial risk investors face based on social and environmental issues.
The reversal is an important victory for shareholder activists and comes just in time for the 2010 proxy season.
"Under the Bush administration, the SEC made some staff decisions that started reasonably enough, by addressing some efforts by investors to micromanage corporate activity," Lewis continued. "But they reached more and more widely, culminating in the rule excluding resolutions asking for risk assessments," said Sanford Lewis, an attorney in private practice whose clients include the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) and other responsible investor organizations working for shareowner rights, in an interview with SocialFunds.com.
The Bush ruling allowed corporations to exclude any shareholder proposal that discussed financial risk related to environmental or social issues.
Going forward, the SEC says, "The fact that a proposal would require an evaluation of risk will not be dispositive of whether the proposal may be excluded."
Read the full article:
Loading...