SEC Settles Issue of Proxy Access and Advisory Resolutions. . . for Now
MMA Praxis applauds the decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) not to pursue its controversial process to curtail or even eliminate the right to file shareholder resolutions, proposed in the middle of 2007. SRI and related organizations, including MMA, helped to organize many of the record 34,000 comments the SEC received in opposition to limiting shareowner proposals and the stifling of shareholder speech. However, the Commission has left the door open to revisit such changes in 2008. Thus, MMA will remain vigilant in safeguarding the rights of American investors.
With only a tiny handful of comments on the public record supporting the controversial proposals, the overwhelming expression of opposition paralleled national opinion survey findings released in September. That scientific survey found that only about a third or less of U.S. investors supported any of the five potential approaches outlined by the SEC to curb the rights of shareholders to file shareholder resolutions and participate in the process of selecting members of corporate boards.
This was not the first time that socially responsible and religious investors have challenged a potential SEC curb on the voice of shareholders. The current campaign by concerned investors surpassed by a significant margin the outcry that ensued in 1997-1998 when more than 300 socially responsible investing, religious, labor and other groups coalesced to oppose an earlier SEC staff plan to gut the shareholder resolution process. The groups prevailed in that fight in which the SEC was forced to withdraw its widely-criticized proposal.
