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“We are proud to have participated in this year’s BPP Oversight Committee Forum and prior forums, which help to promote a factual understanding of the industry and foster a constructive dialogue about the role of proxy advisory firms in the proxy voting ecosystem.” -- Lorraine Kelly

November 19, 2024

Statement in Connection with Fourth Annual Open Stakeholder Forum of the Best Practice Principles Oversight Committee

ISS is a founding signatory to the Best Practice Principles (BPP) Group (BPPG), a global group of service providers formed to address the recommendation of the European Securities and Markets Authority to promote transparency and understanding of shareholder voting research providers. The 2024 Annual Open Stakeholder Forum of the BPP Oversight Committee featured several keynote speakers and two panels, one including BPP signatories and the other including a regulator, asset owners, asset managers, and corporate issuers, who discussed their experience in working with proxy advisors, their views on the overall success of the BPPG framework, and common misconceptions about the use of proxy research and voting services.

“We are proud to have participated in this year’s BPP Oversight Committee Forum and prior forums, which help to promote a factual understanding of the industry and foster a constructive dialogue about the role of proxy advisory firms in the proxy voting ecosystem,” said Lorraine Kelly, Global Head of Investment Stewardship Solutions at ISS. “The participants in this year’s Forum shared valuable commentary and insights from a practitioner and a regulatory perspective, and we appreciate their contribution to the public discourse.”

Notably, Konstantinos Sergakis, Chair of the BPP Oversight Committee (BPP OC), affirmed that all five signatories continue to be BPP-compliant and stating that their disclosure keeps on improving and that “monitored self-regulation may be not just a viable alternative to hard law interventionist measures but may actually be the optimal way forward.”

“We thank Chair Sergakis and all of this year’s Forum participants for their insightful commentary on how the industry-led approach to monitoring the provision of shareholder voting research, as exemplified by the BPPG, is proving highly effective for stakeholders,” said Kelly.

The full recording of the 2024 BPP OC Forum is available here.

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