U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said today that he was unsure whether a majority voting mandate would appear in financial reform legislation.

The bill passed by the Senate last week includes a provision to direct the SEC and the national stock exchanges to require public companies to have a majority voting standard in uncontested board elections. The legislation passed by the House of Representatives in December does not have that provision. Senate and House members are to gather next month in a conference committee to work on reconciling the two wide-ranging bills, which each exceed 1,500 pages. 

During a speech today at Compliance Week’s annual conference in Washington, Frank was asked whether majority voting would make it into the final bill. “I’m not sure about that,” the Massachusetts Democrat said, but he added that the SEC may be authorized to impose such a requirement. 

Frank said he expects that proxy access and an annual “say on pay” requirement would appear in the final legislation. Both the House and Senate bills have these provisions. The House bill would allow the SEC to exempt smaller issuers from advisory votes, while the Senate legislation lacks that language.  The House measure also calls for advisory votes on “golden parachute” payments.

Majority voting is supported by state pension funds, labor funds, and other activist investors, who argue that it makes uncontested board elections more meaningful. Most S&P 500 firms have adopted majority voting provisions in response to shareholder demands, but few small- and mid-cap companies have done so.  So far this year, shareholder proposals on this topic have averaged 60.9 percent support at 22 companies and have won 16 majorities, according to ISS data.