Washington - Business Roundtable CEO Joshua Bolten today issued the following statement regarding the organization’s decision to appeal the ruling by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rule reversals governing proxy advisory firms:
“Under this Administration, the SEC has proposed an onslaught of harmful and unjustified regulations that fall outside of its congressionally approved scope. The agency’s efforts to eliminate important oversight measures for proxy advisory firms is just one example of its counterproductive regulatory agenda, and Business Roundtable remains committed to fighting the SEC’s rollback of these essential reforms in the courts. With proxy advisors’ influence on the decision-making process of publicly-traded companies increasing, there is no basis for the SEC to relax accountability and transparency measures for these unregulated, third-party entities.
“Some proxy advisory firms have a track record of providing misleading and incomplete information to shareholders. The SEC’s 2020 proxy advisory reforms would have helped improve the accuracy of information informing proxy vote recommendations. The agency’s rushed decision to prevent these modest, commonsense reforms from taking effect will make it more difficult for investors to differentiate fact from fiction when considering critical proposals.
“Business Roundtable looks forward to pursuing the next phase of our legal action to preserve these vital shareholder protections, and we will continue to aggressively resist the SEC’s regulatory overreach.”