After setting a new high-water mark in 2009 in terms of US shareholder proposals (more than five dozen) and support (one majority vote and three others exceeding 40% of the votes cast), proponents of climate change resolutions are gearing up for an even bigger 2010 proxy season. Close to 100 proposals, spanning more than a […]
Read MoreWhilst the future shape of shareholder engagement responsibility is debated in London, Brussels and across continental Europe, the debate in Dublin is a fierce as anywhere. In what is traditionally a very close-knit investment and business community, the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) and the Deputy Prime Minister participated in a full and frank exchange of views […]
Read MoreEuropean companies fail to link executive pay to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance according to new research published by Eurosif (European Sustainable Investment Forum). The report, produced in association with an investor-led steering committee including Groupama Asset Management, Henderson Global Investors, MACIF Gestion, PhiTrust Active Investors, Robeco and Société Générale Gestion, highlights what EUROSIF sees as “critical challenges and […]
Read MoreThe Securities and Exchange Commission has published its final rules which require a “say on pay” (SOP) for companies which have received financial assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The key points are that: The proxy will have to disclose that the company is providing a SOP vote Whether the vote is binding or not Smaller […]
Read MoreIn a move highlighting the changing landscape of shareholder-company relations in Germany, two DAX 30 constituents are meeting with investors in advance of the first shareholder votes on executive pay. Top executives from Siemens AG and Thyssen-Krupp AG — which will convene AGMs on 26 January 2010 — will huddle with several key investors today, with executive remuneration likely to be a point of […]
Read MoreThe 2009 update to the ABI Guidelines on Executive Remuneration will be a disappointment to many investors. The amended guidelines fail to deal with some of the key structural deficiencies in executive pay practice and guidance – a contributory factor to the downturn – although the ABI has inserted 53 words to emphasis the need […]
Read MoreThe US is moving forward with a series of comprehensive financial reforms in a new bill, “The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009”. In 1,279 pages, the new bill pulls together a total of six reform proposals which had been introduced individually over the course of recent months. Subject to final amendments, the bill […]
Read MoreThe California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second largest public pension fund in the United States, has endorsed the Stewardship Code for institutional investors, becoming the first US-based fund to back the policy, which it called a “standard for good corporate governance.” The Stewardship Code, for which the FRC is to take reponsibility for […]
Read MoreIn the UK legal landscape, the role of the auditor has a particularly important and specific role – not to aid efficient trading markets – but to support the stewardship of the company. With the increased regulatory focus on the role of shareholders in the stewardship process it is particularly apt timing that the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation […]
Read MoreThere’s no small irony that Lloyds Banking Group will be asking 2.8 million private shareholders to back its £13.5 billion fundraising, the biggest deal of its kind in UK history, on the same day that Sir David Walker makes his final recommendations to Her Majesty’s Government on how the governance of the UK financial sector […]
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