NIRI is dedicated to advancing the practice of investor relations and professional competency and stature of its members. Through its collaborative community, NIRI advances engagement in the capital markets and drives best practices in corporate disclosures, governance, and informed investing.
In its role as advocate for the IR profession, NIRI supports a variety of financial regulatory reforms. Here is a summary of NIRI's advocacy agenda:
1. NIRI supports equity ownership position transparency – full and frequent ownership disclosure by all institutional investors (mutual funds, hedge funds, activist investors, etc.) including:
2. NIRI supports comprehensive reforms to the current shareholder voting and communications system in order to improve engagement between public companies and their shareholders.
3. NIRI supports increased transparency and regulatory oversight of proxy advisory services and the processes used by these firms in generating voting recommendations. Institutional investment managers and advisers should take greater responsibility for their voting decisions and provide more disclosure about their proxy votes and use of proxy advisors. NIRI supports the final rules adopted by the SEC in July 2020 to provide much-needed regulatory oversight over proxy advisors.
4. NIRI supports a comprehensive evaluation of market stabilizing systems and processes used during times of extreme volatility including some form of short-selling circuit breakers.
5. NIRI supports initiatives to strengthen the initial public offering (IPO) market in the United States, while also protecting investors from fraud. NIRI believes that IPO issuers should be allowed to adopt takeover protections (such as dual-class share structures) to give executives and directors more time to implement long-term growth strategies.
6. NIRI supports efforts to promote long-termism within the capital markets. NIRI encourages companies to provide guidance over a longer term (i.e., one year or more) if they choose to provide guidance. NIRI also believes that 13D and 13F modernization will help promote long-termism in the market by giving IR teams more timely notice about hedge fund activists that are building significant stock positions.
7. NIRI supports initiatives to modernize and streamline corporate disclosure rules, and NIRI encourages the SEC to use its regulatory authority to reduce the costs of complying with existing mandates, including Form 10Q reporting requirements. NIRI also asks regulators to allow companies to engage with investors to develop voluntary reporting guidelines on emerging environmental, social, or political issues before imposing costly, one-size-fits-all mandates.
For more details on these regulatory issues and NIRI's advocacy agenda, please review this document.