Center for the Study of Financial Market Evolution

“It is not illegal for hedge funds to manipulate share prices,” said the July 29th Sunday Times. “Borrowing stock delivers voting rights at a fraction of the cost, [and] suspicions have been raised that groups of traders are trying to manipulate the outcome of the ABN takeover.” (full article)

Evaluating the Impact of Securities Lending on Specific Proxy Votes (full article)

Despite what the papers – or the financial industry websites – say, the intense media interest in recent borrowing of Fortis Bank shares, and related corporate governance issues may be misguided. (full article)

A recent report suggested that mutual funds' tendency to vote with management on proxies may be part of the reason for ballooning executive pay. But another study by four U.S. and Canadian professors, this time on loaning shares ahead of proxy votes, raises questions about whether mutual funds, and other large shareholders, vote at all, or even more than once. (full article)