This post is a policy statement issued by the Investor Stewardship Group, a collective of some of the largest U.S.-based institutional investors and global asset managers, along with several of their international counterparts.
The Investor Stewardship Group (ISG) is a collective of some of the largest U.S.-based institutional investors and global asset managers, along with several of their international counterparts. The founding members are a group of 16 U.S. and international institutional investors that in aggregate invest over $17 trillion in the U.S. equity markets. At launch, the Investor Stewardship Group comprises BlackRock, CalSTRS, Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), GIC Private Limited (Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund), Legal and General Investment Management, MFS Investment Management, MN Netherlands, PGGM, Royal Bank of Canada Global Asset Management, State Street Global Advisors, TIAA Investments, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., ValueAct Capital, Vanguard, Washington State Investment Board, and Wellington Management. The ISG is being led by each member’s senior corporate governance practitioners.
The ISG was formed to bring all types of investors together to establish a framework of basic standards of investment stewardship and corporate governance for U.S. institutional investor and boardroom conduct. The result is the framework for U.S. Stewardship and Governance comprising of a set of stewardship principles for institutional investors and corporate governance principles for U.S. listed companies.
The corporate governance framework articulates six principles that the ISG believes are fundamental to good corporate governance at U.S. listed companies. They reflect the common corporate governance beliefs that are embedded in each member’s proxy voting and engagement guidelines, and are designed to establish a foundational set of investor expectations about corporate governance practices in U.S. publicly-listed companies.
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