What are ISS and Glass Lewis and Why Should My Bank Care?
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) recently released its Annual Benchmark Policy Survey (the "Policy Survey"). In keeping with its prior practice, ISS seeks responses from institutional shareholders, issuers,...more
On December 19, 2023, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) released its updates to its Proxy Voting Guidelines. Somewhat unusually, ISS made only one change to its voting recommendation policies for U.S. public...more
Glass, Lewis & Co (Glass Lewis) and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have each released updates to their Canadian proxy voting guidelines for the 2024 proxy season. The Glass Lewis updates apply to shareholder...more
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
A study of companies in the Russell 3000 just released by ISS showed that, for the first time, directors who self-identified as racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 20% of all board directorships. The study found that...more
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis), the two leading providers of corporate governance research and proxy voting services, have published their updated proxy voting guidelines for...more
Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC ("Glass Lewis"), the two major proxy advisory firms, recently issued their updated proxy voting guidelines for the 2023 proxy season. These policy updates...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had a busy 2022, adopting a number of new rules and proposing additional rules, many of which are likely to be finalized over the next several months. In November, Glass Lewis...more
On November 17, 2022, Glass Lewis released its 2023 U.S. Policy Guidelines (U.S. Guidelines) and its 2023 ESG Initiatives Policy Guidelines (ESG Guidelines), effective for shareholder meetings on or after January 1, 2023. On...more
Corporate boardroom diversity has increased significantly over the last few years, and the interest in and demand for gender and racial/ethnic diversity on boards of directors remain high. Lack of corporate board diversity...more
Last month, Institutional Shareholder Services published its Americas 2022 Proxy Voting Guidelines. As part of its updated guidelines, ISS has removed the "grace" period for board diversity so that its policy now reads as...more
In the past few weeks, both major proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC ("Glass Lewis"), have issued their updated proxy voting guidelines for the 2022 proxy season. These...more
The two dominant proxy advisory firms — Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis (GL) — have issued their policy updates for the 2022 proxy season. These updates reflect the continuing trend of institutional...more
On December 7, 2021, Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) launched its new 2022 voting policies, generally effective for meetings occurring on or after February 1, 2022 except for those updates for which a transition...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 2022 proxy season. Their voting...more
This week, ISS issued its benchmark policy updates for 2022. The policy changes will apply to shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2022. The key changes for U.S. companies relate to say-on-climate proposals,...more
Background On November 4, 2021, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) released proposed updates to its US benchmark voting policies for 2022, with a public comment period running through November 16, 2021. The draft policy...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
Last week, ISS released for public comment its proposed benchmark policy changes for 2022. If adopted, the proposed policy changes would apply to shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2022. The proposed changes...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
On October 14, 2020, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) released for comment its proposed voting policy changes to be applied to shareholder meetings taking place on or after February 1, 2021. The proposed changes...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
On December 1, 2020, the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) proposed to adopt listing rules related to board diversity after determining that the national market and the public interest would benefit from a regulatory...more
À l’approche de la prochaine période de sollicitation de procurations, les émetteurs sont invités à se familiariser avec les lignes directrices canadiennes en matière de vote par procuration respectives d’Institutional...more