The California Public Employees Retirement System, the nation's largest public pension fund, has brought a list of investor-focused concerns to a recent meeting with Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White.
Topping CalPERS' priorities is strengthening investor rights. It called on the SEC to "establish a proactive agenda to advance the mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and to facilitate capital formation."
Representing $265 billion in assets earmarked for 1.6 million California workers, CalPERS urged the SEC to take a strong reform role as it wades through pending Dodd-Frank regulations.
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"We recommend the commission reinforce its strong investor protection focus by addressing the following near-term financial market reform priorities. This includes critical rulemaking and oversight that helps reinforce what we consider core issues for long-term value creation," CalPERS said.
CalPERS outlined its five core issues for long-term value creation: Investor rights; board quality and diversity; incentives; corporate reporting; and smart regulation. Within those categories the pension fund suggested new rulemaking for universal proxy access and increased support for private ordering and mandatory auditor rotation. Additionally, CalPERS suggested the SEC create its own credit rating system to oversee the updated proxy system.
Given the time lapsed since the financial crisis and the still-developing Dodd-Frank Consumer Protections Act, CalPERS said, "there is unfinished business that is critical to protecting and strengthening shareowner rights and investor confidence in the financial markets."
Also included in the CalPERS concerns was the JumpStart Our Business Start-Ups Act, legislation enacted following the financial crisis, which eased financial disclosures and investor protection guidelines.
The SEC has not released a public comment on the meeting.
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