{"id":166,"date":"2026-05-20T19:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=166"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:40:32","slug":"trumps-sec-slammed-the-door-on-small-investors-they-built-a-new-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=166","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s SEC Slammed the Door on Small Investors. They Built a New One."},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>Grist\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>

Read more Trump Begins Branding America\u2019s 250th Anniversary as a Christian Celebration<\/a><\/p>\n

Since President Donald Trump<\/span> took office, the Securities and Exchange Commission has made it harder for small and activist investors to raise concerns through the government filing system known as EDGAR. Now they\u2019re pushing back with their own alternative platform, which they call the Proxy Open Exchange\u2014or POE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Literary puns aside, the initiative is aimed at bringing greater transparency to an increasingly restricted space. In January, the SEC\u00a0said it would no longer allow investors with less than $5 million in shares\u00a0to use EDGAR to send communiqu\u00e9s called exempt solicitations to fellow shareholders. Such documents are often used to lay out an investor\u2019s stance on a given issue, including climate action, board accountability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe a free market requires communication,\u201d said Andrew Behar, CEO of the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which spearheaded the new site. \u201cIf they\u2019re going to take away EDGAR, we\u2019re going to give them POE.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response has been swift. In less than a week,\u00a0POE has 63 filings, with dozens more expected. EDGAR shows just 39 exempt solicitations so far in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The SEC declined to comment about POE, but has previously\u00a0told Grist\u00a0that\u00a0limiting access to the system is an attempt to rein in the scope of government, ease burdensome regulation, and curtail the \u201clarge volume\u201d of requests that often require prompt attention. \u201cOver the years, companies have expressed concerns that this misuse has caused confusion among their investor base,\u201d an SEC spokesperson said at the time. \u201cShareholders can continue to conduct exempt solicitations through other commonly used means, such as press releases, emails, websites, and social media, and electronic shareholder forums.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics of the move see it as an attempt to silence irksome investors.<\/p>\n

The workaround is not the only attempt at an alternative to the official platform. The nonprofit Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, for instance, recently\u00a0started putting exempt solicitations\u00a0and proxy memos it receives about issues relevant to its members on its website. Still, POE is the most robust effort yet to fill the gap the government created.<\/p>\n

It is designed to mimic EDGAR, Behar said. It even relies on the same set of codes\u2014known as central index keys\u2014to identify individuals and companies making posts. Although As You Sow reviews submissions for basic errors, it doesn\u2019t filter content, making POE, like EDGAR, open to all viewpoints.<\/p>\n

\u201cPOE is a new and adventurous approach to try to set up a large public website that people of all persuasions can post their solicitations on,\u201d said Tim Smith, senior policy advisor for the Interfaith Center, who applauded the idea. \u201cIt could be an investor that\u2019s filing a resolution on climate. It could be a conservative investor who decides to push a resolution that\u2019s challenging diversity, equity, or inclusion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s Minions Have Quietly Disappeared Most Federal Data on Gender Identity<\/a><\/p>\n

Any filings are subject to the same anti-fraud legal provisions required by EDGAR, says Jill Fisch, a professor of business law at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cThe postings have to be accurate, so that doesn\u2019t change,\u201d she said. What is new is that POE\u2019s interface is much more user-friendly, she said, calling the government\u2019s site \u201ckind of old and glitchy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not everyone, however, is embracing the system. According to Behar, one of the world\u2019s largest proxy advisors\u2014which helps its clients research shareholder proposals\u2014won\u2019t consider any information that\u2019s not on the official platform. The company, ISS, declined an interview request and did not respond to written questions. Still, Fisch said the pool of potential users of the new system is vast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about these being public websites is that they\u2019re available to mutual funds, to smaller institutions, to universities, and so forth,\u201d she said. She\u2019ll be curious to see data on who uses the site in the coming weeks and months. So far, though, \u201cit\u2019s way too early to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisch will also be watching how corporations respond. Some, like Exxon Mobil, which has often opposed shareholder advocacy, could see it as a threat (the company did not respond to an interview request) and start their own platforms. Or, perhaps, the existence of unregulated alternatives will encourage companies to ask the SEC to push people back to EDGAR, where everything will be in the same place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whatever the rationale, it would be relatively easy for the government to reverse course. \u201cAny new administration or new SEC could change this in a moment,\u201d said Smith. That, in many ways, would be an ideal outcome for Behar, who hopes that POE will be temporary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want this to be a necessary platform into perpetuity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is hopefully short-lived. When the administration changes and the SEC returns to its core mission, we expect EDGAR to be restored because transparent information sharing is essential for the free market.\u201d<\/p>\n

More often, though, Fisch finds that platforms like POE are one-way streets. Even if EDGAR is loosened back up, she expects people to continue finding the alternatives useful. \u201cOnce investors figure out how cheap and easy and convenient it is to use the internet and social media to communicate, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to stop,\u201d she said. \u201cThe cat\u2019s out of the bag.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Court Clears Path for \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d on Sacred Tribal Land<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shut out of the government\u2019s filing system, activist investors launched a rival platform\u2014and it\u2019s already outpacing the original.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s SEC Slammed the Door on Small Investors. 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