Three-judge panel of D.C. Circuit again holds that mandatory disclosure requirement of conflict minerals rule violates First Amendment
by Cydney Posner In November 2014, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the petitions of the SEC and Amnesty International for panel rehearing in connection with the conflict minerals case, National Association of Manufacturers, Inc. v. SEC. Today, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, by a vote of two […]
Do hiring practices lead to earnings management?
by Cydney Posner Yes, according to a study from academics at the University of South Carolina, reported by Reuters. The study showed that U.S. public companies tend to favor hiring accountants “who show a willingness to flatter corporate profits by massaging the numbers.” In the study, which surveyed 41 executive […]
Will more regulation be imposed on stock buybacks?
by Cydney Posner Lots of companies have been buying back their stock in recent years, either on their own initiative because, for example, management thinks the shares are undervalued, or sometimes at the insistence of hedge fund activists bent on increasing the market price of the shares. Now, as discussed […]
In adopting pay-ratio rules, is the SEC just a mime pushing on the sides of an imaginary box?
by Cydney Posner At an open meeting this morning, SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher contended that, in its efforts to adopt pay-ratio rules that conform to the Dodd-Frank mandate, the SEC was just putting itself in a box – viewing the Dodd-Frank mandate as so prescriptive that the SEC could only […]
New study gives mixed reviews to companies filing conflict minerals reports
by Cydney Posner A new study on conflict minerals compliance from Tulane University and Assent Compliance, a compliance software and services firm, revealed that about 90% of filers of conflict minerals reports indicated that they were unable to determine if their products were conflict free, the primary object of the conflict […]
Is the SEC considering reproposing mandatory proxy access rules?
by Cydney Posner The SEC has posted a new staff working paper, “Public versus Private Provision of Governance: The Case of Proxy Access,” reporting on a study conducted by the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA), of the “tradeoffs” between universal regulatory mandates and so-called “private ordering” in the […]
Does disclosure of a high CEO-employee pay ratio affect consumer behavior?
by Cydney Posner The answer is yes, according to a recent study from the Harvard Business School, “Paying Up for Fair Pay: Consumers Prefer Firms with Lower CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios. Just in time to be part of the mood music for the SEC’s expected adoption of final pay-ratio rules on […]
SEC sets meeting to vote on final pay-ratio rules
by Cydney Posner As widely rumored, the SEC will consider final adoption of the Dodd-Frank pay-ratio rules on August 5.
House bill to require disclosure of efforts to eliminate slave labor from supply chains
by Cydney Posner Yesterday, Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Chris Smith introduced H.R. 3226, the ‘‘Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015.’’ The bill comes on the heels of articles about slavery and human trafficking like this one on the front page of the NYT, documenting the use of slave […]
SEC to adopt pay-ratio rules without broad exclusions, reports WSJ
by Cydney Posner The SEC may adopt final pay-ratio rules, mandated by Dodd-Frank, possibly as early as next week. More significantly, according to the WSJ, the final rules will be adopted “without broad exclusions sought by companies.” The pay-ratio proposal requires most public companies to disclose the relationship of CEO pay […]
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