Founded in 1969, NIRI is the professional association of corporate officers and investor relations consultants responsible for communication among corporate management, shareholders, securities analysts and other financial community constituents. The largest professional investor relations association in the world, NIRI’s more than 3,500 members represent 2,000 publicly held companies and $5.4 trillion in stock market capitalization.

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Expert Networks for Legislation

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Expert Networks for Legislation

Last week the U.S. Senate passed a bill to ban insider trading by congressional representatives and their staff members who have access to non-public information. While some in Washington have said this is unreasonable, others have said the practice is already illegal and still others have used it to open up a wider ethics debate. For IR professionals who deal with non-public information every day, ensuring insider trading is banned in Washington seems logical. But read on! Under the Senate version, the executive branch would not have to provide detailed monthly disclosures of stock trades, while Congress must. With the House of Representatives taking the bill up this week and pledging to strengthen it, the discussion should be interesting.

What is important for companies and IR professionals to know is that there is a belief that in much the same manner as “expert networks” can be used to feed hedge funds and others with inside information about companies, lobbying firms (in particular) can pass along “political intelligence” to their clients. This might, for example, be inside information on pending legislation affecting an industry or certain companies. The clients receiving this information may be companies, competitors and even hedge funds (who could use the information for trading purposes). Many corporate entities may have lobbying firms to help them, but don’t assume there isn’t an entirely different use for those whispers of confidential information in Washington. In other news that crossed my desk last week: • Sued for Being Too Upbeat? Take a look at this CFO Magazine article. • Proxy Access Defense? Many are watching Western Union’s defense strategy against a shareholder proxy access proposal. You should be aware too! • Private Equity Next Up for SEC Enforcement? It seems like it based upon comments by SEC’s Kaplan. Don’t miss today’s NIRI member webinar – Part II of Dealing with Activist Shareholders. Check out our full professional development calendar for other upcoming events, including webinars and seminars. Are you dreaming about where you will be in about 17 weeks? We are too! It is time to register and make your plans for the NIRI Annual Conference in Seattle – 17 weeks and counting! Finally, thanks to the NIRI Philadelphia chapter for a great visit last week.

Until next week,

Jeff Morgan, FASAE, CAE
President & CEO
jmorgan@niri.org
www.twitter.com/jeffreydmorgan

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National Investor Relations Institute

Expert Networks for Legislation