Investment firms will be expected to publish more data on their voting rights and influence over companies in which they invest under new EU rules.
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Proxy vote confirmations one step closer as UK publishes SRDII implementation plans The UK government has published the full text of its planned Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II) legislation as it moves closer to bringing the new rules into law. Despite the country’s exit from the European Union, the UK has been working on incorporating […]
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Direct engagement with companies produces better results than shareholder resolutions at AGMs, an asset manager has argued. US investment house T Rowe Price, which runs approximately $1trn, stated in its annual ESG report that it preferred to engage one-to-one with companies to encourage positive changes rather than focus on shareholder campaigns at annual meetings. The […]
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Investor organisations have hit out at lobbying from custodians, securities lenders and other financial services groups to delay the implementation of the second Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II). In a letter to the European Commission, EU consumer group Better Finance called for the directive to be implemented as planned as any delay would “deteriorate the […]
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The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has shelved proposals that would have limited the power of shareholder advisory firms in corporate decision making. The SEC is scrapping a portion of its proposal that would have forced proxy advisers to submit their voting recommendations to companies for checking before distributing them to investors in advance of […]
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Four billion reasons not to fix the proxy plumbing Can the SEC resist the lobbying deluge and restore essential share ownership rights? Since the GFC, regulators have been working to make markets and economies safer. Part of that process has been to encourage market disruption by fostering better competition and increasing diversity. Now it’s time […]
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Unilever: Votes and Voices Proxy plumbing adds complexity to hotly-contested simplification plan The proposed Unilever vote in October is raising City eyebrows. When the CIO of a UK insurer takes to the pages of the financial media voicing concerns over a voting issue you know it’s serious. David Cumming, head of equities at Aviva Investors, […]
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As implementation of Shareholder Rights Directive II draws closer, attention is (or should be) turning to how we are going to make it happen. A cynic might say that, like MIFID II, “it’s all very well intended but….” OK, fair enough. But seriously, how are we going to get from good intentions to good outcomes? […]
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Manifest has released its 2018 voting policy guidelines to clients and announced changes to its research reports to reflect the latest global governance and sustainability developments. AGM reports will now provide more detail on board diversity and pay ratios while Say on Sustainability reports will reflect the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related […]
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In a move to improve shareholder democracy the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed that universal proxy cards be introduced that allow investors to vote for directors as they would if they attended the company’s annual general meeting. However, one of the Commissioner, Michael Piwowar, has expressed his opposition to the proposal claiming that the […]
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