MUFG's Nobu Hirano to Rejoin Morgan Stanley Board

Morgan Stanley said Nobuyuki Hirano, the president and group chief executive of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., has rejoined its board.

Mr. Hirano will replace Masaaki Tanaka, who had served as MUFG's representative director on Morgan Stanley's board since May 2011. Mr. Tanaka is a senior adviser of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., the core commercial banking unit of MUFG.

The Japanese bank made a $9 billion investment in Morgan Stanley in the depths of the 2008 financial crisis as Morgan fought to remain independent after the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. Under the terms of that deal, MUFG gets representation on Morgan's board.

Mr. Hirano previously joined Morgan Stanley's board in March 2009 and was replaced by Mr. Tanaka about two years later.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley's board also amended its bylaws to grant investors "proxy access," meaning they can now include their own nominees to the board in its annual proxy statement.

Goldman Sachs added its name to the long list of companies making the change earlier this week, while Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. have adopted similar plans. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has said it is considering the move.

Proxy access gives shareholders greater clout to oust directors and influence strategy by letting them list competing board candidates on corporate ballots. The push comes at a time when activist investors also are trying to force change on some company boards.

Nearly 10% of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index have adopted or are committed to proxy access, Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy-advisory firm, said Monday.

Write to Lauren Pollock at [e-mail]

Access Investor Kit for "CitiGroup Inc"

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US1729674242

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 29, 2015 19:55 ET (23:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.