In a move hailed as a victory by activist investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday scrapped a controversial 72-year-old rule that allowed broker-dealers to vote in corporate director elections on behalf of their clients without specific instructions.
The change, first proposed by the New York Stock Exchange three years ago, comes amid public anger over lax oversight of companies taking on excessive risk.
Activist investors and unions have long blamed the broker vote for making it difficult to oust directors and for skewing election results in favour of candidates backed by management. The change would in effect apply to director elections held by public companies after January 1.