ROCKVILLE, Md. (October 18, 2018) – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”), a leading provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions to the global financial community, today announced the launch of its benchmark voting policy consultation period. The open comment period, which will solicit views from governance stakeholders globally on certain proposed voting policies for 2019, will run through 5:00 p.m. ET on November 1.
To ensure its benchmark voting policies take into consideration many perspectives, including the views of global institutional investors and those of the broader corporate governance community, ISS gathers input each year from asset owners and managers, companies, and other market constituents through a variety of channels and mediums. Following the release in recent weeks of the results of both its primary and secondary policy surveys, ISS is now making available for public comment certain proposed changes to ISS’ benchmark voting policy for 2019.
Specifically, ISS is requesting feedback from interested market constituents on proposed new policies or potential policy changes with respect to nine voting policy areas, including those covering: board gender diversity in the U.S. and, separately, Canada; board independence & disclosure in Taiwan; director independence relative to tenure in Latin America; director independence in Japan; auditor ratification in the U.K., Ireland and Europe; audit committee independence in Europe; auditor fees/audit committee in India & the Asia-Pacific region; and financial performance assessment methodology in the U.S. and Canada.
Download the comment period documents here.
Comments will be taken into consideration as ISS finalizes the updates to its benchmark voting policies to be applied for shareholder meetings taking place on or after Feb 1, 2019. ISS expects to announce its final 2019 benchmark policy changes during the middle of November.
