A number of U.S. public companies have recently found themselves in a surprising place: trapped in visible and charged debates with politicians over internal corporate and investment policies.
Continue Reading Public Companies and Politics: How to Co-Exist
David Lopez
The Materiality Debate and ESG Disclosure: Investors May Have the Last Word
In 2021, investors and regulators continued to focus on the scope and quality of public company disclosure of environmental, social and governance information.
Continue Reading The Materiality Debate and ESG Disclosure: Investors May Have the Last Word
SEC Charges Eight Companies and Signals Need for Better Disclosures About Delayed Filings
On April 29, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced settled charges against eight public companies that filed notifications of late filings on Form 12b-25 (more commonly known as “Form NT”) without disclosing in those filings a pending restatement or correction of financial statements.
These settlements are a reminder that filing a Form…
Corporate Sustainability: Moving Faster and Faster to the Center of Strategy and Shareholder Value
Corporate sustainability has in a few short years become a mainstream capital allocation and voting criterion for many institutional investors. As a consequence, those investors are calling for consistent, comparable and reliable sustainability disclosure capturing the risks and opportunities faced by the businesses in which they invest.
Continue Reading Corporate Sustainability: Moving Faster and Faster to the Center of Strategy and Shareholder Value
SEC Adopts Major Changes to MD&A and Related Requirements
On November 19, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to Regulation S-K, including changes to its MD&A requirements that will make significant and long-overdue improvements to a central disclosure requirement of the U.S. securities laws. The twin themes of the amendments are dropping outmoded requirements and taking a more principles-based approach.
The amendments…
SEC’s Cautious Updates to Corporate Disclosure Requirements
On August 26, the SEC revised several disclosure requirements applicable to reporting companies. The amendments embrace a “principles-based” approach in the hope that it will elicit more focused and useful disclosures. They will also require issuers to focus on human capital disclosures and on the organization of risk factor disclosures, and some will have to…
The SEC Takes Action on Proxy Advisory Firms
For more than a decade, the SEC has been wrestling with whether and how to regulate the activities of the proxy advisory firms – principally ISS and Glass Lewis – that have come to play such an important role in shareholder voting at U.S. public companies. On July 22, 2020, the SEC adopted rules and…
SEC Proposes a Significant Change in Reporting by Institutional Investors
On July 10, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed changes that would substantially reduce the number of investors required to file quarterly reports showing their holdings of U.S.-listed equities on Form 13F. The SEC’s proposal would increase the 13F reporting threshold 35 fold — from $100 million to $3.5 billion — and…
New SEC Coronavirus Actions: Extended Conditional Relief for Filing Deadlines, New Disclosure Guidance, Temporary Relief for EDGAR Form ID Applications
On March 25, 2020, due to the continuing impact of COVID-19, the SEC issued an order extending its previously-issued conditional relief from certain Exchange Act reporting requirements and proxy delivery requirements.
In particular, the March 25 order provides U.S. public companies with a 45-day extension to file or furnish certain filings otherwise due between March
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SEC Disclosure and Proxy Guidance and Proposals
The following post was originally included as part of our recently published memorandum “Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2020”.
SEC Disclosure and Reporting Developments
Recently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission continued to move forward with a number of disclosure effectiveness and simplification initiatives, the details of which are available in…