SEC Votes to Free Up Proxy Advisers, Shareholder Proposals (1)

Wall Street’s watchdog is taking new steps to empower investors and proxy advisory firms through a pair of rules voted on at a Wednesday meeting.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved final rules by a 3-2 partisan vote to free proxy advisers from some restrictions placed on them at the end of the Trump administration. Critics of the 2020 rules say they hampered firms’ independence.

Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co., the two largest proxy advisory firms, were the primary targets of earlier rules, which required them to share voting recommendations with companies that were ...