August 4, 2009
Corp Fin Deputy Director Shelley Parratt to Speak!
We’re very excited to announce that Corp Fin Deputy Director Shelley Parratt has joined our All-Star cast and will serve as the keynote for our “4th Annual Proxy Disclosure Conference.”
Now that Congress is moving on say-on-pay (and other compensation-changing initiatives), you need to register now to attend our popular conferences and get prepared for a wild proxy season. Remember that the “4th Annual Proxy Disclosure Conference” is paired with the “6th Annual Executive Compensation Conference” – so you automatically get to attend both Conferences for the price of one. They will be held November 9-10th in San Francisco and via Live Nationwide Video Webcast. Here is the agenda for the Conferences. Register now.
SEC Settles Charges that BofA Failed to Disclose Merrill Lynch Bonus Payments
As noted in this press release, yesterday, the SEC settled charges that Bank of America misled investors about the bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives at the time of its acquisition of the firm. Bank of America agreed to settle the SEC’s charges and pay a penalty of $33 million. Here is the SEC’s complaint – and here is the litigation release.
The SEC alleges that in the joint merger proxy statement, Bank of America stated that Merrill had agreed that it would not pay year-end performance bonuses or other discretionary compensation to its executives prior to the closing of the merger without Bank of America’s consent. In fact, Bank of America had already contractually authorized Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in discretionary bonuses to Merrill executives for 2008.
Note that New York Attorney General Cuomo announced that his investigation was continuing – so this saga may not be over…
Broadridge Speaks on Latest E-Proxy & Proxy Season Stats
Recently, I blogged about Broadridge’s release of data regarding the latest proxy season. Now, I’ve caught up with Lyell Dampeer, President of Broadridge Financial Solutions, to ask him a few questions in this podcast including:
– What were the e-proxy statistics for this past proxy season?
– What should companies be thinking about for next proxy season?
– How did the other proxy season statistics look?
– Broc Romanek