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Program on Corporate Governance Advisory Board
- Peter Atkins
- David Bell
- Kerry E. Berchem
- Richard Brand
- Daniel Burch
- Paul Choi
- Jesse Cohn
- Arthur B. Crozier
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Byron Georgiou
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino
- Steven J. Williams
HLS Faculty & Senior Fellows
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Preparing for the Year of the “S”
Guns, addiction, discrimination. While classic shareholder activists remain a front-burner concern for corporate America, companies are also grappling with a wave of environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy pressures. Within that struggle, the “S” factor is under the microscope. So far this year, 74 percent of all shareholder proposals were aimed at environmental and social causes, […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Corporate culture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Diversity, Engagement, ESG, Hedge funds, Institutional Investors, Long-Term value, Proxy voting, Public perception, Shareholder activism, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder voting
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BlackRock Investment Stewardship’s Approach to Engagement on Human Capital Management
BlackRock has an industry leading global investment stewardship program that promotes corporate governance best practices at the companies in which we invest. This program is part of the investment function at BlackRock, fulfilling our fiduciary duty to protect and enhance the value of our clients’ assets. As Larry Fink recently wrote in his 2018 annual […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged BlackRock, Board oversight, Boards of Directors, Corporate culture, Diversity, Engagement, Fiduciary duties, Human capital, Institutional Investors, Management, Shareholder value, Stakeholders, Stewardship, Transparency
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Do Proxies for Informed Trading Measure Informed Trading? Evidence from Illegal Insider Trades
Trading by investors who have material, non-public information is of first-order importance to liquidity providers, stock market operators, and securities market regulators. Liquidity providers, such as market makers and institutional investors, worry that an informed trader will take advantage of their lack of information. Operators of stock markets worry that the presence of informed investors […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Institutional Investors, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged FINRA, Information asymmetries, Information environment, Insider trading, Liquidity, SEC, Securities enforcement, Securities regulation
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Upcoming Volcker Rule Regulatory Changes
Federal financial regulators responsible for enforcement of the Volcker Rule are about to embark on a process that will culminate in a significant revision to the regulations that went into effect eighteen months ago. In a March 5, 2018 speech at the Institute of International Bankers Annual Washington Conference in Washington, D.C., Randal K. Quarles, […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Banks, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Foreign banks, Proprietary trading, Volcker Rule
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Why Senator Crapo’s Bill Will Put Our Financial System and Economy at Risk
Ten years ago, Wall Street recklessness and regulatory neglect plunged our nation into the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. Millions lost their jobs and homes, the economy was ravaged, and trillions of dollars in household wealth was wiped away. Many people and regions of our country are still struggling in the aftermath of […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Banks, Deregulation, Dodd-Frank Act, Financial crisis, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Foreign banks, Leverage, Prudence, S. 2155, Systemic risk, Too big to fail, US Senate
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Blockchain Technology for Corporate Governance and Shareholder Activism
Although the hype around the buzzword “blockchain” is currently still largely focused on speculation with virtual currencies like bitcoins, blockchain is a state-of-the-art technology that can offer smart solutions for classical inefficiencies in the corporate governance field. In our recent paper, Blockchain Technology for Corporate Governance and Shareholder Activism, we look into the applications of […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Corporate Elections & Voting, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Securities Regulation
Tagged Agency model, Belgium, Blockchain, Decision-making, Europe, Financial technology, International governance, Minority shareholders, Shareholder meetings, Shareholder voting, Transparency
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The First Wave of Pay Ratio Disclosures
U.S. public companies recently began disclosing their CEO-to-median employee pay ratios, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act and Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K. It is still too early to draw conclusions, but we outline some preliminary observations below based on our review of the pay ratio disclosure included in 35 SEC filings through February 2018. […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Executive Compensation, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Compensation disclosure, Compensation ratios, Disclosure, Dodd-Frank Act, Executive Compensation, Financial regulation, Securities regulation
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The Fragmented Regulatory Landscape for Digital Tokens
The past few days have seen several interesting developments in the law and regulation of digital tokens. Each action reflects an intense focus by U.S. regulators to clarify the treatment of digital tokens, from those issued by startups in initial coin offerings (ICOs) to the more “traditional” cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and litecoin, as well […]
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Posted in Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged CFTC, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Equity offerings, Financial technology, FinCEN, ICOs, SEC, SEC enforcement, Securities enforcement, Securities regulation
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The Buyer’s Perspective on Security Design: Hedge Funds and Convertible Bond Call Provisions
Many studies consider optimal security design from the viewpoint of the issuer. Our article investigates the importance of the views of suppliers of capital in the design of securities. We do so by examining a market that has witnessed a major shift in the identity of the suppliers of capital, namely, the market for convertible […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Institutional Investors
Tagged Arbitrage, Bonds, Capital formation, Convertible bonds, Hedge funds
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Senate Rollback of Dodd-Frank
On March 14, 2018, the U.S. Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155), a financial reform bill also known as the “Crapo Bill” for its primary sponsor, Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID). Although not as sweeping in scope as the Financial CHOICE Act—the financial reform bill passed by the House […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Banks, Dodd-Frank Act, Financial crisis, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Foreign banks, Liquidity, Prudence, S. 2155, SIFIs, Stress tests, Systemic risk, US Senate, Volcker Rule
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