Contested Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules Take Effect: Explained

Nasdaq Inc. will start requiring thousands of companies to have diverse boards or explain why they don’t by Dec. 31, more than two years after the SEC gave the stock exchange the green light to implement the regulations.

The rules, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021, survived a legal challenge from two conservative groups in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in October. The Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment and National Center for Public Policy Research had argued the regulations exceeded the SEC’s powers, but a three-judge panel ruled that the SEC acted within ...