Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Proxy Voting for Sustainability

It’s illogical – and quite myopic – that many of the nation’s largest institutional investors refer to shareholder-sponsored resolutions addressing material topics such as climate change, resource constraints and environmental stewardship as “special interest,” “non-routine” or involving “special circumstances.” The opposite is in fact the case. We strongly agree with David Lubin and Daniel Esty’s […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

SEC Staff Focus on Offshore Cash Holdings

As reported recently in the press, the SEC staff has, with greater regularity, been issuing comments to companies seeking disclosure of the extent of offshore cash holdings and the impact of such offshore holdings on the company’s liquidity position.  In general, the staff appears to be concerned about the U.S. federal income tax consequences of […]

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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on SEC Staff Focus on Offshore Cash Holdings

Executive Overconfidence and the Slippery Slope to Financial Misreporting

In the paper, Executive Overconfidence and the Slippery Slope to Financial Misreporting, forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting and Economics as published by Elsevier, our detailed analysis of a sample of 49 firms subject to SEC Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs) suggests two distinct explanations for the misstatements. Just over one quarter of the […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Empirical Research | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Territorial Reach of U.S. Securities Laws After Morrison v. National Australia Bank

In June 2010, in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court held that U.S. securities antifraud laws do not reach transactions by non-U.S. investors in securities of non-U.S. companies effected on non-U.S. exchanges, even if the investors claim that their losses arose from conduct in the United States. In its decision, which overturned […]

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Posted in Court Cases, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Volcker Rule – Proposed Regulations

This week, the Federal Banking Agencies released their proposed regulations implementing the Volcker Rule. Rather than prepare a traditional law firm summary, we have prepared two sets of slides – one that graphically maps the key restrictions on proprietary trading and another that maps the key restrictions on relationships with hedge funds or private equity […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Practitioner Publications, Private Equity, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Volcker Rule – Proposed Regulations

The Most Influential People in Corporate Governance

A review of the most recent Directorship 100 list – a list of the most influential people in corporate governance put together each year by Directorship magazine – indicates that individuals affiliated with Harvard Law School and its Program on Corporate Governance play a central role in the corporate governance landscape. This year’s Directorship 100 […]

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A Two-Pronged Approach to Reforming International Corporate Taxes in the U.S

Editor’s Note: Robert Pozen is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. This post is based on an article that first appeared in Tax Notes International, which is available (including footnotes) here. The current system for taxing the income of controlled foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations — […]

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Posted in International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Op-Eds & Opinions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Nonprofit Boards: Size, Performance and Managerial Incentives

In the paper, Nonprofit Boards: Size, Performance and Managerial Incentives, forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting and Economics as published by Elsevier, we study the relation between a nonprofit organization’s board of directors and the number of programs or objectives it pursues, its performance and its manager’s incentives. We posit that board membership is only […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Boards of Directors, Empirical Research | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Present and Future Challenges for the Banking Industry and the FDIC

Editor’s Note: Martin Gruenberg is Acting Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This post is based on Chairman Gruenberg’s remarks to the American Banker Regulatory Symposium, available here. Condition of the Banking Industry The FDIC and the banking industry are only now emerging from the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s. The latest […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Regulators Materials, Speeches & Testimony | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Broker-Dealers Respond to Dodd-Frank and FINRA

We recently conducted a survey of broker-dealer compliance officers to gather perspectives and practices around new regulatory initiatives and amendments that will likely have a material impact on financial institutions: the Dodd-Frank Act and FINRA’s know-your customer (KYC) and suitability rules. We thought it would be useful to understand how firms and their compliance functions […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Broker-Dealers Respond to Dodd-Frank and FINRA