Institutional Shareholder Services Opens Comment Period for 2012 Proxy Voting Policies

Market Participants Encouraged to Weigh in on Draft Policies

Rockville, MD – October 18, 2011 – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community, today announced the opening of its annual comment period for its 2012 proxy voting policies. A critical component of ISS' annual policy formulation process, the comment period allows institutional investors, corporate issuers, and governance market participants to provide feedback on ISS' policy updates while they are still in draft stage. The comment period runs through November 7 and includes ISS' U.S. and International policies.

"ISS firmly believes that incorporating multiple views on corporate governance issues is critical for effective policy formulation," said Martha Carter, ISS' Head of Global Research. "The uniquely transparent and collaborative nature of our policy formulation process serves not only to inform our policies, but also helps to create a higher level of understanding and dialogue across the corporate governance community." We're pleased to have evolved our process this year by engaging more with the corporate issuer community and publicly posting all comments to our draft policies. Through these steps and more, we continue to foster transparency in governance practices and proxy voting globally.

To ensure its voting policies reflect the perspectives of the corporate governance community and represent the collective voice of its institutional clients, ISS gathers broad input each year from institutional clients and market constituents through policy surveys, issue-specific roundtables and this unique open comment period. Over 300 respondents weighed in on issues ranging from executive compensation and board independence, to engagement triggers and social & environmental issues. The full results from the survey are posted to ISS' Policy Gateway.

ISS will release its final 2012 U.S. and International Policy updates in the week of November 14 and its Global Policy Summary and Concise Guidelines in December. To participate in ISS' comment period and learn more about its Policy formulation process, please visit the ISS Policy Gateway.

About ISS

Founded in 1985, ISS is the world's leading provider of proxy advisory and corporate governance solutions to financial market participants. ISS' services include objective proxy research and analysis, end-to-end proxy voting and distribution solutions, turnkey securities class-action claims management, and reliable governance data and modeling tools. More than 1,700 clients rely on ISS' expertise to help them make informed corporate governance decisions.

Media Enquiries

Cheryl Gustitus
cheryl.gustitus@issgovernance.com
+1.301.556.0395

Sarah Ball
sarah.ball@issgovernance.com
+44.207.618.2275

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