What are ISS and Glass Lewis and Why Should My Bank Care?
Davies Governance Insights analyzes the top trends and issues most important to Canadian public companies and provides practical guidance for boards to meet these challenges head on. In the 2020 edition of Davies...more
Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have published their updated U.S. voting guidelines for 2023, with Glass Lewis additionally releasing its 2023 policy guidelines for ESG...more
Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis (GL) have issued their policy updates for the upcoming 2023 proxy season. In general, ISS’s updates build incrementally on positions the firm has...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis Canadian company updates for the 2023 proxy season continue to focus on board diversity and oversight of climate risk. Other issues considered include overboarding,...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the leading proxy advisors in the United States, have announced updates and clarifications for their voting guidelines for the 2023 proxy season. Their voting...more
On April 1, 2022, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment in a case challenging the legality of AB 979 under the California Constitution...more
This client alert provides an overview of recent key updates on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters from the leading proxy advisory firms and major institutional investors. We also address updated guidance by...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis recently released their respective policy updates for the 2022 proxy season. Key topics include board diversity and board oversight of environmental and social risks....more
The policies aim to provide crucial guidance to public companies amid the growing importance of ESG in proxy voting. In late 2021, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co (Glass Lewis), the two...more
Environment, social and governance (ESG) and gender diversity remain in focus as Glass Lewis publishes Proxy Voting Guidelines for 2022; board composition, share structure and incentive awards also addressed, among others....more
Introduction - Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recently published its 2022 updates to its benchmark proxy voting policies. The policies will govern ISS’ voting recommendations for shareholder meetings held on or...more
ISS has released updates to its 2022 ISS benchmark proxy voting policies. The updated policies will generally be applied for shareholder meetings taking place on or after Feb. 1, 2022, except for those updates that are being...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has released proposed updates for comment to certain of its Canadian benchmark proxy voting policies (each, a Proposed Policy) for the 2022 proxy season. The Proposed Policies are open...more
On Thursday, November 4, proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) launched an open comment period on 16 proposed policy changes. The request for comment grouped the proposed changes within five general...more
ISS has published proposed policy changes for 2022 for public comment. The following summarizes proposed changes for the U.S. market....more
Two years ago, in the before times—before the pandemic, before a painful period of racially charged protests and clashes, before the January 6 attack on the Capitol—a group of nearly 200 chief executives, all members of the...more
Earlier this week, I wrote about the classifications used by ISS in determining whether a director is "diverse". In short, I found ISS' scheme illogical and perverse. California's board diversity mandate uses different...more
Last week, Liz Dunshee at TheCorporateCounsel.net noted that ISS has updated its policies and procedures to explain how it assesses racial and ethnic diversity. Currently, ISS considers board diversity in making voting...more
BlackRock Doubles Down on Sustainability - • BlackRock signals substantially more assertive posture on climate-related issues • New approach to shareholder proposals saw BlackRock support 54% of environmental and social...more
The COVID-19 pandemic, volatile market conditions, and increasing stakeholder attention to a range of environmental and social topics made 2020 a remarkably difficult year for many public companies. 2021 will bring new...more
ISS recently released updated methodology for its Governance QualityScore (GQS) rating system for institutional investors. The new factors relate to areas of emerging concern to investors, with 11 of the 17 new factors...more
The change in administration is expected to bring a governmental and regulatory climate that is vastly more hospitable to calls to facilitate the incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis recently released their respective policy updates for the 2021 proxy season. Key updates are summarized below....more
Proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis have issued their annual updated proxy voting guidelines for the upcoming 2021 proxy season. Glass Lewis’s new guidelines apply to shareholder meetings on or after January 1, 2021,...more
Over the last few weeks, we have seen a flurry of activity concerning diversity in the boardroom. The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (Nasdaq) proposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a new diversity rule and proxy...more