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"Investors, companies and other stakeholders responded to ISS' Global Benchmark Policy Survey and responses from institutional investors or investor-affiliated organizations jumped by 29 percent this year to 205."

October 10, 2022

Institutional Shareholder Services Announces Results of Global Benchmark Policy Survey

ROCKVILLE, Md. (October 10, 2022) – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions to financial market participants, today released the results of its annual global benchmark policy survey. In total, ISS received 417 responses to this year’s benchmark policy survey. Responses from institutional investors or investor-affiliated organizations jumped by 29 percent this year to 205. There were 202 responses from companies and corporate-affiliated organizations, with the remainder from academic and other responders.

This year’s benchmark policy survey initially covered the global topic of climate change risk management and then drilled down by markets and regions on other topics, including governance issues such as potential policy exemptions for multi-class capital structures, handling of problematic governance structures, share issuance mandates at cross-market companies under ISS’ U.S. policy coverage, and views on proposals calling for third-party racial equity and civil rights audits. With regard to the U.K. and Ireland, survey questions covered audit-related matters and assessment of executive pay increases, while questions applicable to Continental Europe covered multi-class share structures and unequal voting rights, as well as virtual-only meetings.

Download a copy of this year’s benchmark policy survey results report here.

The surveys are part of ISS’ annual policy development process. During November, ISS will release key draft policy updates and open a public comment period for all interested market participants on key proposed changes to its voting policies for next year. The open comment period in November is designed to elicit objective, specific feedback from investors, companies, and other market constituents on the practical implementation of proposed policy updates. The new policy updates will be announced in late November and the process will complete in December with the publication of the final policies applicable to shareholder meetings occurring on or after Feb. 1 of 2023, and a webinar presentation on those updates.

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About ISS
Founded in 1985, Institutional Shareholder Services group of companies (ISS) empowers investors and companies to build for long-term and sustainable growth by providing high-quality data, analytics and insight. ISS, which is majority owned by Deutsche Börse Group, along with Genstar Capital and ISS management, is a leading provider of corporate governance and responsible investment solutions, market intelligence, fund services, and events and editorial content for institutional investors and corporations, globally. ISS operates on an arm’s-length basis and Deutsche Börse has adopted Principles protecting the independence and integrity of ISS’ research offerings. ISS’ 2,700 employees operate worldwide across more than 30 global offices in 15 countries. Its more than 4,000 clients include many of the world’s leading institutional investors who rely on ISS’ objective and impartial ESG and governance research, market intelligence and fund services and data and analytics, as well as public companies focused on ESG and governance risk mitigation as a shareholder value enhancing measure. Clients rely on ISS’ expertise to help them make informed investment decisions.


Media Contact:
Sarah Ball
Executive Director, Communications
press@issgovernance.com 

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