The Staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Staff) significantly changed guidance on shareholder proposals in its recently released Staff Legal Bulletin (SLB) 14L.

In late September 2021, the NYSE filed a proposal with the SEC to amend Section 312.07 of its Listed Company Manual to change how a company calculates the number of votes need to approve action subject to that section “in accordance with its own governing documents and any applicable law.”

Now that the amendments adopted last year are applicable, calendar year reporting companies will need to update their disclosures in the Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) section of their upcoming annual reports on Form 10-K

NYSE amends its related party transaction rule for the second time in less than 5 months.

On August 6, 2021, the SEC approved Nasdaq’s board diversity proposal set forth in Rules 5605(f) and 5606 of the Nasdaq Listing Rules.

The SEC approved amendments to the NYSE’s Listed Company Manual, revising the requirements for related party transactions in Section 314.00.

The SEC Chair has identified several areas of focus (10b5-1 plans, climate change, human capital management and cybersecurity risk governance among others), while also asking the SEC staff to revisit a number of recently amended rules (proxy voting advice, the integration framework for exempt offerings, the accredited investor definition and resource extraction rules).

Amendments recently took effect to “address gaps and complexities in the exempt offering framework that impede access to capital for issuers and access to investment opportunities for investors.”