Employees on boards — headed across the Atlantic?
by Cydney Posner As discussed in this PubCo post, in a speech delivered in July, the about-to-be new U.K. Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa May, advocated strenuously for a number of corporate governance reforms, an approach she herself characterized as “something radical.” Among the reforms that May surprisingly […]
GAO issues second annual conflict minerals report
by Cydney Posner The GAO has issued its annual conflict minerals report to Congress, entitled “Companies Face Continuing Challenges in Determining Whether Their Conflict Minerals Benefit Armed Groups.” The GAO is required to report annually on the effectiveness of the SEC’s conflict minerals rule in promoting peace and security in […]
SEC requests comment on non-financial/non-business items in Reg S-K
by Cydney Posner The SEC has posted a request for comment on some of the Reg S-K disclosure requirements that were not specifically covered in the Reg S-K Concept Release, issued earlier this year (see this PubCo post), which assessed the Reg S-K business and financial disclosure requirements. This release […]
New study examines benefits of enhanced audit report in the UK
by Cydney Posner In light of the closing of the comment period for the PCAOB reproposal of an expanded audit report standard (see this PubCo post and this PubCo post), including a requirement to disclose critical audit matters, it may be useful to examine the experience of another country that has […]
Comments on PCAOB reproposal of expanded auditor’s report reflect predictable split
by Cydney Posner As discussed in this PubCo post, in May of this year, after five years of outreach, the PCAOB once again attempted to make the auditor’s report more relevant and informative to investors by reproposing the auditor reporting standard, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When […]
Individual shareholder proposals—why do they do it?
by Cydney Posner This recent paper from the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, “Gadflies at the Gate: Why Do Individual Investors Sponsor Shareholder Resolutions?” attempts to answer a question I’ve been wondering about for quite a while: why do individual investors invest their time and energy pursuing […]
Some successful approaches to increasing board gender diversity
by Cydney Posner A lot has been written about the benefits of gender diversity on boards. As discussed in Bloomberg, while “[e]quality is a worthy goal on its own terms, of course….for the corporate world, the better rationale for gender diversity is financial…. Companies with at least one female director had […]
SEC Whistleblower Office charges that prospective waiver of whistleblower award in severance agreements violated securities laws
by Cydney Posner In a new whistleblower protection case, the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower settled charges against BlueLinx Holdings, Inc. that the company’s severance agreements violated the securities laws. The agreements included confidentiality restrictions without exclusions for whistleblower reporting and required terminating employees to waive possible whistleblower awards or […]
Consultants report on conflict minerals due diligence and disclosure for 2015. But has it made a difference for the DRC?
by Cydney Posner Two consulting firms, Assent Compliance and Source Intelligence, have published their studies on conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) reporting for 2015, the third year of required SEC reporting. For 2015, there were slightly over 1,200 filers, representing a decrease of about 50 filers from the […]
Study shows more restatements and internal control weaknesses among “heavy users” of non-GAAP measures
by Cydney Posner The non-GAAP financial measures pile-on continues. Certainly, the SEC has recently been making the public-speaking rounds and issuing CDIs warning companies of its concern about abuses of non-GAAP metrics, such as substituting individually tailored revenue recognition and measurement methods for those of GAAP or using a non-GAAP measure […]
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