However, in 2022 the SEC adopted certain amendments that rescinded those rules, including: In the United Kingdom, to achieve compliance with the Shareholders Rights Directive, proxy advisors are required to be listed on the Financial Conduct Authority's website.
[7] In May 2018, the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University published an overview of the Proxy Advisor industry authored by J. Copland, D. Larcker and B.
A potential conflict of interest identified by the Government Accountability Office is that some owners of proxy firms do business with both issuers and investors.
For example, in 2010 a Securities & Exchange Commission consultation document asked whether certain issues in the proxy advisory industry, including conflicts of interest, are affected by limited competition.
[11] In April 2019, Glass, Lewis & Co controversially did not recuse itself from issuing voting recommendations in a proxy contest at Knight Therapeutics, a Canadian company.
This precedent could encourage future activist shareholders to include past proxy advisor senior executives in their nominee slates to unfairly obtain favorable recommendations.