CII will file an amicus brief at the D.C. Circuit on January 28, in National Association of Manufacturers v. Institutional Shareholders Services, Inc., and it is seeking participation by interested CII members.

The SEC announced January 14 that will not consider two recently adopted Public Company Accounting Oversight (PCAOB) rules that CII supported, a delay that will likely result in the rules being tabled.

In the 119th Congress, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will serve as chair of the Senate Banking Committee and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will be the panel’s ranking member. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Dave McCormick (R-Penn.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) joined the committee, while Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) will no longer serve on the panel.

Citing recent developments in the United States and “different regulatory and client expectations in investors’ respective jurisdictions,” the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, a multi-trillion dollar group of investment managers committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, announced a suspension in its primary activities as it launches a review to ensure NZAM “remains fit for purpose in the new global context.”

Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas ruled January 10 that American Airlines’ retirement fund violated its fiduciary duty of loyalty by letting its asset manager BlackRock weigh environmental factors in proxy voting and allegedly engaging with shareholders on pro-ESG issues.

Martin Gruenberg, outgoing chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), discussed the thrift and banking crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the global financial crisis of 2008 and the three large regional bank failures in the spring of 2023 in a speech at the Brookings Institute January 14.

The largest pension fund in the Netherlands, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, sold its entire stake of $585 million in Tesla in the third quarter over concerns about Tesla’ CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package.