voting Archives

Swedish buffer funds appoint global voting partner

Four of the Swedish buffer funds (AP1, AP2, AP3 and AP4) this week announced the appointment of a provider of global voting services:

“The First to Fourth AP Funds (The Funds) have carried out a procurement of a Global Voting

Italian proxy system “backward” and “third world” says shareholders

Although the EU Shareholder Rights Directive was meant to have been fully implemented by 3 August 2009 at the latest, Italy is only just now mulling over shareholder responses to its the second consultation which was launched on 24 July …

What a difference a broker vote makes

Just to illustrate the impact of the reformed broker voting rules in the USA, it’s interesting to look at Bank of America’s proxy votes results which were released to the SEC on Friday, 7th August.

Last month, the SEC voted …

SEC Investor Advisory Committee gets to work

The SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee has kicked off its first meeting with an ambitious and far-reaching agenda.Sets Ambitious Agenda. At its inaugural meeting July 27, the committee, which includes institutional governance heavyweights Hye-Won Choi (TIAA-CREF), Mark Anson (Nuveen Investments), Abe …

Proxy Season 2009 – A Year to Remember?

Manifest cordially invites you to you our end of season colloquium in Paris on September 9th 2009.

Please join us for an afternoon of informative analysis and lively debate in the graceful surroundings of the British Ambassador’s Residence in the …

He who shouts loudest: who’s pulling the strings of cross-border voting reform?

Any choral singer will be familiar with the concept: a choir singing an acapella section will often naturally go ‘flat and lose pitch’, only to have to painfully re-adjust pitch when the orchestra joins in. Conversely, if the orchestra were …

Financial Market Reform: US investors have their say

The Investors Working Group, a bi-partisan panel of experts created in February 2009 by the Council of Institutional Investors and the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, has released its recommendations for reform and modernisation of the US financial …

Asian voting is a missed opportunity

Voting levels at Asian companies are cause for concern concludes the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA). Talking to the Financial Times earlier this week, Jamie Allen, secretary general of ACGA has said that lack of investor involvement means that voting …

Sir David Walker’s 39 Steps

Sir David Walker’s review of the governance of UK banks, commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has published 39 recommendations aimed at improving the governance of banks and other big financial institutions (BOFIs). The aim of the report was to …

SEC to consider broker discretionary voting

The SEC has three key governance reforms on the agenda for its July 1 “Sunshine Act Meeting” :

Item 1: The Commission will consider whether to propose amendments to the proxy rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to …