Nearly nine in 10 investment professionals doubt that climate risks are being correctly priced into company valuations, a major poll reveals. The survey, conducted by the prominent Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA), found an overwhelming 87% of respondents do not believe markets are consistently and correctly pricing climate risks into company and sector assessments. Disbelief […]
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SEC chairman Jay Clayton has faced an extraordinary grilling over the fake investor letters he cited in ‘support’ of the regulator’s proxy advisor rule changes – with a prominent US senator telling him he was “duped”. Clayton was finally forced to answer questions about his part in the fake letter scandal during his testimony before […]
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ESG factor identification, implementation and monitoring is now a fundamental part of setting pension scheme investment beliefs, according to investment consultants Redington. At Minerva’s ESG Educational Event held recently in London, Honor Fell, Head of Responsible Investment at Redington, spoke about how investment consultants can best help pension funds with their new ESG-related responsibilities. There […]
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The chief of UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has lashed out at the SEC and corporate lobby groups for trying to dampen investor rights. In an opinion piece for the FT this week, chief executive of the PRI Fiona Reynolds strongly criticised what she called “powerful countervailing forces” that were attempting to silence shareholders […]
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Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor is facing a significant showdown with investor activists as its bid to drill for oil in a well-known Australian beauty spot intensifies. Under its proposals, Equinor wants to drill a 2.2km exploration well in the Great Australian Bight, a stretch of coastline regarded as one of the world’s most […]
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OECD applauds “game changer” forum on tax evasion A massive jump in the number of countries trading information has pumped an extra €100bn into global tax revenues over the last decade – although some nations are still failing to join the fight against tax evasion. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), […]
Read MoreShareholders pay the price for corruption Minerva marks International Anti-Corruption Day with new research and voting guidelines News of Glencore’s 7% share price slump after the UK’s Serious Fraud Office confirmed investigations into “suspected bribery” across the Group’s operations was a timely reminder that governance issues reach beyond the familiar and routine AGM shareholder resolutions on […]
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IFRS: Climate-related disclosures Guest post by Paul Lee November’s newsletter from the global accounting regulator, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is big news, and is a big step towards accounting that is consistent with the Paris Agreement. The paper by Nick Anderson, IASB board member and former fund manager and head of research at […]
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A group of investors are urging industry giants BlackRock and JPMorgan to review their proxy voting records amid concerns they don’t match the firms’ public declarations about climate change. Mercy Investment Services and Boston Trust Walden have written to BlackRock and JPMorgan respectively, expressing disappointment that the companies’ voting practices appear inconsistent with their statements […]
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has updated its proxy advisor enforcement rules following industry feedback. The update follows the regulator’s proxy advisor Shareholders’ Rights Regulations (SRD II), which came into force in June, that gave the FCA powers to discipline and investigate proxy advisors. The regulations require proxy advisors to disclose how they produce their […]
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