Research Archives

Audit committees: earnings management fears

Nine out of ten audit committee members say that the recession has increased the risk of earnings management and other misconduct – and yet fraud risk was the issue committees felt they were least effective at overseeing.

Research by KPMG’s …

IRRC-I & PGI review ETF voting habits

The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute and PROXY Governance Inc. have released a new in-depth analysis of the proxy voting policies and recent voting records of seven of the largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) sponsors in the US. The findings indicate …

TUC demands mandatory voting disclosure by fund managers

The UK’s trade union federation, the TUC has published its 2008 fund manager voting survey and found investors wanting.

For the seventh year the TUC’s investment team has analysed the voting records of 20 fund managers and pensions funds for …

Banks move to scale back socially responsible investing

Several banks are cutting back their analysis of companies’ socially responsible policies, according to Thomson Reuters, which does a regular survey of equity analysts …… Sarah Wilson, the chief executive of shareholder adviser Manifest, was more concerned about the impact …

Shareholders: “No action, No option” says Watson Wyatt

“We believe that active ownership can help enhance long-term shareholder value and are therefore supportive of pension funds being more active.”

That’s the message from a recent study published Watson Wyatt U.K., “No Action No Option,” which concludes that pension

Sustainable Pensions Progress Report

New research from the UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF) highlights “clear and exciting evidence” that a group of Responsible Investment (RI) champions is beginning to emerge among UK corporate pension funds. Three quarters of repeat respondents achieved a higher score

ProxyGovernance & IRRCi research study on hybrid boards

A new study prepared by Manifest’s US partner, PROXY Governance with sponsorship by the IRRC Institute, “Effectiveness of Hybrid Boards,” analyzes 120 “hybrid boards” formed from 2005 through 2008 to evaluate their effectiveness in two areas: changes in business strategy …

Beware of Global Governance Conformance

The quest for a single set of global governance standards is misguided and investors should stop using global governance standards based on US policy approaches. That’s the conclusion of Lucian Bebchuk and Assaf Hamdani in their latest paper: “The Elusive …

UK Fund Managers Increase Engagement

Shareholder engagement is on the up according to the UK’s Investment Management Association which has just published its fifth annual Engagement Survey. The report brings together a review of IMA members general approach to voting disclosure between July 2007 and …

CEE/BRIC more English ESG reports

Partner for Financial Stability has released its latest finding on reporting quality in Central and Eastern Europe, noting a significant increase in the number of CEE blue chip companies issuing stand-alone English-language environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports.

The number …