All about risk
Excerpt:
S3522, which could mean unions will need to expand their corral of bought politicians to those who would control the local part of the New Jersey Public Employee Retirement System (PERS), was introduced yesterday in the legislature apparently to the surprise of a Senate committee that rejected it, according to Politico.
Author(s): John Bury
Publication Date: 23 March 2021
Publication Site: Burypensions
Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/controversy-still-follows-calpers-cio-resignation/
Excerpt:
Now, a former CalPERS board member and investment officer has filed a lawsuit demanding that the pension system turn over transcripts, recordings, and notes from a closed-door board meeting held on August 17 allegedly to discuss the Meng affair. Meng resigned on August 5.
J.J. Jelincic’s lawsuit, filed on March 8 in Alameda County Superior Court in Northern California, said the board discussed Meng’s resignation at the meeting and violated the state’s open meetings law.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the CalPERS board’s Governance Committee is scheduled to discuss and possibly approve a plan that would require the full 13-member pension system board to be notified when a top system official is under internal investigation because of possible wrongdoing.
Author(s): Randy Diamond
Publication Date: 15 March 2021
Publication Site: ai-CIO
Excerpt:
California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)1 and State Board of Administration (SBA) of Florida2, the largest and fifth-largest public pension funds in the US, have publicly disclosed that they have voted FOR Effissimo Capital Management’s shareholder proposal to conduct an independent investigation of Toshiba Corporation’s (TYO: 6502) 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM).
SBA Florida cited three reasons for its supportive vote: “Conflicted review process; Insufficient resolution of outstanding concerns; Reasonably proportionate request.”
The votes by prominent institutional shareholders of Toshiba follow earlier disclosure by California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second-largest public pension fund in the US, that it was voting FOR Effissimo’s proposal.
Author(s): Effissimo Capital Management
Publication Date: 14 March 2021
Publication Site: Businesswire
Link: https://www.dailyposter.com/p/exposing-corporate-climate-denial
Excerpt:
Meanwhile, investor efforts to require political spending disclosures at individual companies were halted on many occasions by large asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard, which have regularly used their immense shareholder voting power to shield companies from transparency.
Now with a new SEC chairman, transparency advocates see an opportunity for progress.
“People want to know who companies are bankrolling,” said U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.). H.R. 1, the democracy reform package passed by House Democrats earlier this month, includes a bill from Levin to repeal the Republican measure blocking the SEC from requiring companies to disclose their political spending.
Author(s): Julia Rock
Publication Date: 10 March 2021
Publication Site: Daily Poster
Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/nasdaq-amends-its-diversity-plan-11614547707
Excerpt:
We have listened closely to all the feedback, and we’re making some changes to strengthen our proposal in response. For example, we heard from companies with smaller boards, as well as from several small-cap investors, that meeting the diversity objective would be more challenging for them. As a result of that feedback, we’re now proposing that companies with five or fewer directors may satisfy the recommended objective with one director from a diverse background rather than two. We’re also providing a one-year grace period in the event a vacancy on the board brings a company under the recommended diversity objective.
Overall, our proposal seeks to demonstrate that, with proper disclosure and clear objectives, companies and investors can create momentum toward an approach to capitalism that offers more opportunity to more people. We believe this can be accomplished through a market-driven solution — rather than government intervention.
Author(s): Adena T. Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq Inc.
Publication Date: 28 February 2021
Publication Site: Wall Street Journal
Link: https://www.pionline.com/governance/senate-republicans-oppose-nasdaq-diversity-rule
Excerpt:
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was among a group of Republicans calling on the SEC to reject Nasdaq’s board diversity proposal.
Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee told the Securities and Exchange Commission to reject a Nasdaq proposal allowing it to require listed companies to publicly disclose the gender and racial diversity of their boards and eventually to have at least two diverse directors, citing a connection between diverse boards and corporate performance.
Author(s): HAZEL BRADFORD
Publication Date: 12 February 2021
Publication Site: Pensions & Investments
Excerpt:
Warning that it would be “fiscally irresponsible,” Mayor Lyda Krewson on Thursday vetoed a bill that would return supervision of all city Fire Department pensions to a firefighter-controlled board.
The Board of Aldermen earlier this month approved the bill despite warnings from Comptroller Darlene Green, Budget Director Paul Payne and others that the measure would reverse some reforms enacted in 2012 that put a check on the city’s pension liabilities.
Krewson, in her veto message to aldermen, said she shared those concerns.
Author(s): Mark Schlinkmann
Publication Date: 25 February 2021
Publication Site: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Link: https://www.inquirer.com/news/torsella-psers-garrity-muth-20210225.html
Excerpt:
In November, Democrat Joseph Torsella lost his position as an overseer of Pennsylvania’s $60 billion school pension fund when he lost reelection as state treasurer. But on Thursday, Gov. Tom Wolf tapped Torsella to return to the PSERS board as his representative.
The appointment, which requires majority approval by the State Senate, would restore Torsella to a growing reform bloc on the 15-member board for PSERS. That stands for Public Schools Employees’ Retirement System, which sends checks to about 250,000 retired teachers and other former school workers.
During his single four-year term as treasurer, Torsella, by dint of his position, served on the PSERS board and that of its smaller, $30 billion sister fund for state employees, known as SERS.
Author(s): Joseph N. DiStefano
Publication Date: 25 February 2021
Publication Site: Inquirer