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The Morning Risk Report: Smaller Firms Pressured to Put Women on Boards |
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Investors such as State Street Global Advisors, which commissioned the Fearless Girl statue in New York, have put pressure on companies over gender diversity. PHOTO: JEENAH MOON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Hello. The number of large public companies with all-male boards has dwindled in recent years as investors have demanded more boardroom diversity. Now the pressure is trickling down to smaller companies, the Risk & Compliance Journal’s Kristin Broughton reports.
Proxy advisers are urging community banks, regional energy companies and other small and midsize enterprises to increase gender diversity on their boards or risk losing shareholder support.
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Proxy adviser Glass Lewis & Co., under a policy that takes effect this year, will recommend that investors vote against re-electing directors who chair nominating committees at companies with all-male boards. The firm said it would target companies in the Russell 3000 Index during annual meeting season.
“Companies that don’t have women on their boards are outliers,” said Courteney Keatinge, senior director of environmental, social and governance research at Glass Lewis. “And we want to make sure those outliers are called out.”
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Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, center. PHOTO: BANDAR AL-JALOUD/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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The U.S. Treasury Department told American banks they can ignore an updated European Union blacklist of dirty-money hotspots, calling into question the EU’s methodology for developing the list, which includes several U.S. territories. The list, released Wednesday, results from efforts by the EU to tighten longstanding measures against money laundering and terrorism financing since the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016.
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A former Apple Inc. senior lawyer has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of exploiting his position to illegally trade shares in the company ahead of Apple’s financial reports, according to court documents.
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The European Union agreed on a new copyright law aimed at reining in tech giants and throwing a lifeline to news publishers. The Wednesday deal comes after months of opposition and lobbying from internet giants and open-internet activists that led to a stalemate among EU governments.
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The leaders of America's No. 3 and No. 4 largest cellphone carriers, T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp., defended their planned merger against new attacks from labor groups and advocates for rural wireless customers who said the tie-up would hurt consumers.
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Washington’s campaign to get some of its closest European allies to give up telecommunications gear made by Chinese companies has been a tough sell. Executives from Europe’s cellular and internet providers have warned they would end up bearing the cost of a potential ban on Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. equipment.
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Last week's BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. deal announcement, if completed, would be the biggest bank merger since the crisis. Bank mergers are getting speedier under President Trump, with federal regulators changing policies that had deterred deals after the financial crisis.
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U.S. regulators rejected on Wednesday Options Clearing Corp.’s plan to boost cash reserves, dealing a blow to what had been one of the clearing firm’s key initiatives since the financial crisis.
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A product from Tyson Foods Inc. PHOTO: DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Tyson Foods Inc. made its fortune packing meat. Now it wants to sell you frittatas. A part of Tyson’s strategy is to transform the 84-year-old meatpacking giant into a modern food company selling branded consumer goods on par with Kraft Heinz Co. or Coca-Cola Co.
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Airbus SE pulled the plug on its slow-selling A380 superjumbo, a rival to Boeing Co.’s 747, as airlines flock to smaller, nimbler long-range planes.
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The turnaround of General Electric Co. depends on the revival of its core power business, a reversal that will require Chief Executive Larry Culp to churn through a $92 billion sales backlog marred by lousy projects.
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Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit has reached a deal to buy medical technology firm Auris Health Inc. for about $3.4 billion in cash, expanding J&J’s push into the use of robotic technology for medical procedures and surgery.
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Barrick Gold Corp. favors a partnership with rival Newmont Mining Corp. to combine ore processing operations at some gold mines in Nevada, its chief executive officer said in an interview.
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The Chicago Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. are forming a regional sports network that will carry the team’s games starting in 2020.
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is investing $13 billion this year in data centers and offices across the U.S. PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Alphabet Inc.’s Google is planning to spend $13 billion this year on data centers and offices across the U.S., Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said.
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Autonomous trucking firm TuSimple has raised $95 million to expand its fleet of self-driving big rigs and fund joint product development with truck manufacturers and equipment makers, the company said.
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A wave of strikes at low-wage plants in the Mexican border city of Matamoros threatens to spark increased labor strife as Mexico prepares to overhaul laws to empower workers following a new trade deal with the U.S. and Canada.
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Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will join BlackRock Inc. as a senior adviser. PHOTO: NIKLAS HALLE'N/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer will join BlackRock Inc. as a senior adviser, the asset manager said.
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