Director overboarding, equity plan scorecard for Canada among voting policies subject to comment
ROCKVILLE, MD. (October 26, 2015) – Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”), a leading provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community, today announced the launch of its 2016 benchmark voting policy consultation period. The open comment period, which will solicit views from governance stakeholders globally on certain proposed voting policies for 2016, will run through 6:00 p.m. ET on November 9.
To ensure its voting policies take into consideration the perspectives of the corporate governance community and the views of its institutional clients, ISS gathers broad input each year from institutional investors, issuers, and other market constituents through a variety of channels and mediums. Following the release last month of its 2016 policy survey results, ISS is now making available for public comment certain proposed voting policies for 2016.
Specifically, ISS is requesting feedback from interested market constituents on new or potential changes to 16 discrete voting policies, including those covering: over-boarding (U.S., Canada, U.K.); board composition and poison pills (Japan); compensation-related votes at externally-managed issuers with poor disclosure (U.S., Canada); non-independent chairs of key committees (Hong Kong, Singapore); equity plan scorecard (Canada); vesting period for equity awards (France); ongoing withholds for unilateral board actions (US); audit fees for smaller companies and issuance of shares without pre-emptive rights (UK); acceptance of deposits from the public (India); director independence classification (Middle East & Africa); and remuneration caps (Brazil).
Comments will be taken into consideration as ISS formulates updates to its voting policies to be applied for shareholder meetings taking place on or after Feb 1, 2016. ISS will release final 2016 policies on November 18.
