Editor's Note: Carol Bowie is Head of Americas Research at Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS). This post relates to ISS global benchmark voting policy guidelines for 2015.

ISS recently issued updated guidelines for several of its benchmark global voting policies, which will be effective for analyses of publicly traded companies with shareholder meetings on or after Feb. 1, 2015. For the 10th year running, ISS gathered broad input from institutional investors, corporate issuers, and other market constituents worldwide as a key part of its policy development process. The 2015 updates reflect the time and effort of hundreds of investors, issuers, corporate directors, and other market participants who provided input through a variety of channels, including ISS' annual policy survey, topical and regional roundtables, and direct engagements with staff.

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" /> Editor's Note: Carol Bowie is Head of Americas Research at Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS). This post relates to ISS global benchmark voting policy guidelines for 2015.

ISS recently issued updated guidelines for several of its benchmark global voting policies, which will be effective for analyses of publicly traded companies with shareholder meetings on or after Feb. 1, 2015. For the 10th year running, ISS gathered broad input from institutional investors, corporate issuers, and other market constituents worldwide as a key part of its policy development process. The 2015 updates reflect the time and effort of hundreds of investors, issuers, corporate directors, and other market participants who provided input through a variety of channels, including ISS' annual policy survey, topical and regional roundtables, and direct engagements with staff.

Click here to read the complete post...

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ISS Releases 2015 Benchmark Policy Updates

Carol Bowie is Head of Americas Research at Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS). This post relates to ISS global benchmark voting policy guidelines for 2015.

ISS recently issued updated guidelines for several of its benchmark global voting policies, which will be effective for analyses of publicly traded companies with shareholder meetings on or after Feb. 1, 2015. For the 10th year running, ISS gathered broad input from institutional investors, corporate issuers, and other market constituents worldwide as a key part of its policy development process. The 2015 updates reflect the time and effort of hundreds of investors, issuers, corporate directors, and other market participants who provided input through a variety of channels, including ISS’ annual policy survey, topical and regional roundtables, and direct engagements with staff.

Key ISS benchmark policy changes for the U.S. include adoption of a more nuanced approach to evaluating equity plans, whereby recommendations will largely be based on a combination of factors related to (1) plan cost, (2) plan features, and (3) grant practices. Under the new “Equity Plan Scorecard” approach, cost will generally be weighted 45 percent, grant practices 35 percent, and plan features 20 percent, with roughly a dozen individual factors underlying these three pillars.

ISS’ 2015 policy changes for the Canadian market affect proposals to adopt or amend an advance notice bylaw or board policy, and the definition of director independence, whereby a former CEO may be subject to a five year cooling off period with regard to assessments of board and committee independence.

In Europe, key 2015 policy changes will impact voting recommendations on French supervisory board members and the annual approval of reports and accounts, for companies choosing to grant double-voting rights or seeking general share issuance authorities (with or without preemptive rights), which could be used as a takeover defense without shareholders’ approval. These policy changes come in the wake of adoption of the Florange Act in France in March, 2014.

Notable Asia-Pacific benchmark policy changes for 2015 include adoption of a new policy on director elections in Japan in cases where top executives of companies have failed to achieve an average return on equity of at least 5 percent over the previous five years. Separately, ISS also intends to implement a revised policy on board composition in Japan for companies that do not have multiple outside directors, beginning in 2016. Details of this policy, including the breadth of its application, will be announced in advance of the market’s 2015 annual meeting season. Both changes for the market reflect extensive feedback from Japan-based institutional investors.

For additional details on these and other ISS 2015 benchmark policy updates, please visit the ISS Policy Gateway.

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