The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved new audit quality benchmarks despite objections from Republican members. This decision comes after the SEC also prevailed in a legal battle over proxy rules. In a split decision, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Wall Street's top regulator, allowing the agency to rescind parts of Trump-era regulations on proxy advisers. The SEC's new governance rules faced opposition from firms such as EY and PwC, which made a last-minute effort to halt the new rules, but the commission proceeded with the implementation.