SEC Likely to Hold Public Round Table

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that it was likely to hold a public round-table session next month on a proposal to boost the boardroom power of shareholders.

As the SEC worked to prevent an open rupture among its own commissioners over the divisive issue, agency spokeswoman Laura Cox said: “It’s very likely we will have a round table. In the next two weeks, we’ll have a date.”

The commission’s five members are deeply split over Chairman William H. Donaldson’s so-called “proxy access” proposal. A public round table conceivably could help the commissioners come to a unanimous decision.

The proposal would force companies to begin putting the names of some shareholders’ nominees for board directorships in proxy statements, the ballot pamphlets sent annually to investors.

Proxies are tightly controlled by management. Opening them up to shareholder nominees is intended to make boards more diverse and more willing to challenge chief executives, whose unchecked power is blamed by some for the wave of corporate scandals since 2001.

More than 12,000 written comments from the public have been submitted to the SEC on the issue. SEC rule proposals typically attract no more than a few dozen such comments.

Separately Tuesday, the SEC said it and the Food and Drug Administration were working on an agreement to speed investigations of cases in which health-care companies misled investors about the chances for drug approvals. A number of such cases have rocked Wall Street in recent years, slashing stock prices of some drug firms.

Under current law, the SEC must tell the FDA in writing that it will keep confidential the information supplied by the health regulator in investigations. Eliminating that step would speed probes, experts said.