ISS ESG Releases Extensive Methodology
Updates for Governance QualityScore

ROCKVILLE, Md. (October 31, 2022) — ISS ESG, the responsible investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), today announced the release of methodology enhancements to its industry-leading Governance QualityScore (GQS) scoring solution for global institutional investors.

Today’s release is the most extensive methodology enhancement for Governance QualityScore to date and includes the introduction of 23 new factors while applying 52 existing factors to companies based in new jurisdictions for increased global comparability of best governance practices.

New factors are spread across seven topical areas to include:

• Information Security, to assess companies’ third-party information security risks and breaches, support levels for information security-related shareholder proposals, and the disclosure level of information security-related performance measures in executive compensation plans.
• Director Skills, to assess companies’ level of director skills as it pertains to climate, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and other selected skills.
• Director and Executive Pledging, to assess companies’ existing pledging policies and the actual shares pledged by directors and executives expressed as a percentage of the company’s outstanding shares and in aggregate value.
• Emerging Risk Oversight, to assess companies’ emerging risk oversight by evaluating the independence of committees responsible for climate, human capital management, health and safety, and succession.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, to expand existing assessments of companies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion profile by evaluating whether there are LGBTQ+ directors and ethnically diverse leaders on the board.
• ISS Pay-For-Performance Concerns, to display the concern level for companies’ pay-for-performance measures, including the initial quantitative concern, and overall quantitative concern.
• Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, to assess whether companies are conclusively identified under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act.

To learn more about the new factors and when they will be scored, as well as the new application of 52 existing factors to companies in additional markets and regions, please click here.

In tandem with today’s release, ISS ESG is announcing a data verification period allowing companies to verify and submit changes to their data on all factors, including those added for this release, before scores are made available under the updated methodology. Access to the data verification portal is provided free-of-charge and year-round.

###

About ISS ESG

ISS ESG solutions enable investors to develop and integrate responsible investing policies and practices, engage on responsible investment issues, and monitor portfolio company practices through screening solutions. It also provides climate data, analytics, and advisory services to help financial market participants understand, measure, and act on climate-related risks across all asset classes. In addition, ESG solutions cover corporate and country ESG research and ratings enabling its clients to identify material social and environmental risks and opportunities. For more information, please visit us at: www.iss-esg.com

Media Contact:
Subodh Mishra
Global Head of Communications
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.
press@issgovernance.com