The SEC announced January 23 that it will be objecting to the use of exempt solicitations by smaller shareholders.

Speaking at the 53rd Annual Securities Regulation Institute on January 26, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda suggested that as part of a comprehensive review of Regulation S-K, the SEC could consider deleting the requirement that companies explain whether they have an insider trading policy or provide reasons if they do not.

The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) both followed CII’s lead and recently urged the SEC to reconsider a November 17 announcement that its Division of Corporation Finance this proxy season would not generally be weighing in on no-action requests from companies seeking to exclude shareholder proposals from their proxy statements.

The Shareholder Rights Group’s director and general counsel Sanford Lewis and its associate counsel, Khadija Foda, published a critique of the Weinberg Center’s recently published survey on shareholders’ and companies’ views on Rule 14a-8, arguing that the way the survey results were portrayed by the center did not reflect the actual data.