Tag: rule 14a-8 no-action request

Corp Fin urges redaction of personally identifiable information from Rule 14a-8 submissions

At the end of last week, the Corp Fin staff made an announcement advising companies and shareholder proponents, effective immediately, to redact all personally identifiable and other sensitive information from Rule 14a-8 submissions and related materials prior to submitting them to Corp Fin. The staff may require parties to resubmit any materials the staff receives “that contain personally identifiable or sensitive information, in which case the staff will not consider the substance of those materials until they are resubmitted.”

Staff returns to responding by letter to Rule 14a-8 no-action requests

You might recall that, in 2019, Corp Fin discontinued its longstanding approach of responding by written letter to each no-action request to exclude a shareholder proposal. Instead, the staff responded by letter only when it believed “doing so would provide value, such as more broadly applicable guidance about complying with Rule 14a-8,” and declined to respond by letter to requests that it considered to be ordinary course. The vast majority of responses were publicly communicated on a chart posted on the Corp Fin website. At the time, the staff indicated that the change was intended to make the process more efficient and effective. (See this PubCo post.) On review, the staff has now decided to revert back to prior practice.