A lead Republican negotiator on a financial overhaul bill met earlier this week with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro about the SEC's proposal to give shareholders easier access to corporate voting, a sign that Republicans could bend on one of the key sticking points in the Senate bill.

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) said Thursday that Schapiro "has some interesting ideas" about the SEC's so-called "proxy access" rule to ensure that shareholders who put their board candidates on proxy voting ballots have the best interests of the company in mind.

The SEC's proxy access rule, which Schapiro expects to finalize later this year, is meeting with vehement opposition from the business community. Once finalized, the rule will almost certainly face a court challenge.

Democrats in Congress are hoping to make it easier for the SEC to complete the proxy access rule without a lawsuit. Financial rewrite bills in both the House and the Senate include language giving the agency the explicit authority to write the rule.

The House passed its bill last year, and the Senate is expected to vote on its version in the coming weeks.

Republicans in the Senate have objected to the financial bill's proxy access provision, saying it goes outside the scope of regulatory overhaul. Opponents of proxy access also worry that unions or other corporate activist groups will hijack corporate boards using the proxy voting system.

Corker has prepared an amendment to strip the proxy access provision from the Senate bill, which he could offer during floor debate.

But Corker said Thursday that he is in talks with the SEC and some state regulators about how to handle proxy access.

"I still have some concerns about a single-purpose interest group trying to take control of a board," Corker said.

But the SEC is mulling a number of ideas that could respond to those worries. "They're doing things like saying for a shareholder to do it, you've got to own stock for two years, instead of a hedge fund coming in two months before and gaining access by buying a large amount [of stock]. I think that makes sense," Corker said.

All rules coming out of the SEC require approval from at least three of the five sitting commissioners. Individual aspects of rules often are tweaked hours before a scheduled vote. People familiar with the SEC proxy access negotiations say many details of the rule are still under negotiation."

Corker said Republicans are "still noodling" about the proxy access rule. He indicated the language in the Senate bill could be less offensive to Republicans, for example, if the rule initially only applied to large companies.

-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; fawn.johnson@dowjones.com