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"Institutional investors benefit from industry-leading comparability of governance best practices across international markets, drawing on a comprehensive set of datapoints."

October 25, 2023

ISS ESG Releases Methodology Updates for Governance QualityScore

Data Verification Period to Run Nov. 6 – 17

ROCKVILLE, Md. (October 25, 2023) — ISS ESG, the sustainable 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. These will impact company scoring and decile ranking with immediate effect when launched on December 1, 2023. This is a continued annual exercise on the part of the ISS team designed to ensure that GQS evolves to meet both established and emerging governance trends at both the global and local levels. Areas of enhancement announced today include:

  • 14 factors relating to board structure, compensation, audit, and risk oversight are being expanded to new markets.
  • 11 existing factors covering board structure, compensation and shareholder rights will be enhanced to capture more detailed information from companies.
  • For over 10 factors originally introduced in 2022, scoring will now take effect.


Guillaume Tassin, Head of Data Solutions at ISS ESG, said: “The numerous additions and improvements announced in today’s release are the culmination of extensive Governance QualityScore methodology enhancements introduced by the ISS team over the last two years.” Tassin added: “Institutional investors benefit from industry-leading comparability of governance best practices across international markets, drawing on a comprehensive set of datapoints. These now range from well-established governance factors such as the level of shareholder support on Say-on-Pay proposals to more recent areas of investor focus such as information security and diversity, all covered in the upcoming release.”

To learn more about the new updates, 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 available year-round.

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About ISS ESG

ISS ESG solutions enable investors to develop and integrate sustainable investing policies and practices, engage on responsible investment issues, and monitor portfolio company practices through screening solutions. ISS ESG 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:
Sarah Ball
Executive Director, Communications
Institutional Shareholder Services

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