IR Café

Wondering what new wave of regulation is coming our way? Chairman Mary Schapiro of the Securities and Exchange Commission today offered an outline in a speech to the Council of Institutional Investors.

Schapiro’s agenda for the SEC in 2009 includes proposals for new disclosure requirements, proxy and compensation changes, and other ideas that investor relations teams will want to watch closely.

The initiatives will focus on strengthening the hand of shareholders in electing boards of directors and holding them accountable:

• In May, the SEC will consider a proxy access regulation to ensure that shareholders “have a meaningful opportunity to nominate directors.” Details to come, but one option was considered before. As MarketWatch reports: “A similar approach was introduced by ex-SEC Chairman William Donaldson in 2003, however it was never approved. Labor-backed investors and activist hedge funds have pushed for the authority; however corporations have opposed it arguing that investors with special interests such as labor unions would push their agenda at the expense of the company’s effort to improve share-value.”
• The SEC will consider requiring more disclosure on board nominees – data on a candidate’s experience, qualifications and skills, beyond the current brief description of recent experience.
• The Commission may require boards to disclose reasons for using a particular leadership structure — such as an independent chair, non-independent chair, or combined CEO and chairmanship.
• Schapiro will seek more compensation disclosure, such as how executive pay drives management’s behavior, including risk-taking. She also wants companies to explain their overall comp approach, beyond highest-paid officers, and reveal consultants’ conflicts of interest.
• In risk management, the chairman has asked the staff to develop a proposal “that looks to providing investors, and the market, with better insight into how each company and each board addresses these vital tasks.”

In addition, the SEC tomorrow will consider alternatives for limiting short selling – a thorn in the financial side for some companies and IR teams.

The devil is always in the details, and regulatory expansions can be especially devilish when they spring from political outcry. The media are describing the public’s current attitude, especially in Washington, as a “rage” brought on by bear-market investor losses and corporate scandals.

No doubt, securities lawyers will continue to have plenty of work ahead. IR practitioners should keep an eye on the SEC to prepare for what’s coming.