Corporate governance - Vigil

The cryptocurrency dogecoin surged after Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla will accept some payments in the digital token.

The Economist set out to test all three hypotheses about American business: that it is less dynamic, less global and more concentrated. The results appear nowhere near as bleak as the doom-sayers would have you believe.

Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass, Lewis & Co. (“Glass Lewis”), the two major proxy advisory firms, recently released updates to their proxy voting policies for the 2022 proxy season.  The ISS U.S. policy updates are available here.  The ISS updates will apply for shareholder meetings on or after February 1, 2022, except for those policies subject to a transition period.  ISS plans to release an updated Frequently Asked Questions document that will include more information about its policy changes in the coming weeks.

Molson Coors Beverage Co. learned some lessons after bringing corporate employees back to their offices in October. Color-coded wristbands can help colleagues signal their openness to a hug. It’s important to schedule 10 minutes of travel time between meetings. And it’s tough to get some people into meeting rooms with masks if they can join a video call without a mask from their desk.

Shareholders, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund and Illinois State Treasurer, are among an investor group that collectively filed eight shareholder proposals for consideration at the company’s annual meeting.

This post summarizes significant developments relating to stockholder voting at annual meetings in the 2021 proxy season among the SV 150 and S&P 100.

SenseTime is postponing its big stock market debut after once again getting caught up in tensions between the United States and China.

In a move that likely paves the way for more Canadian institutions to invest in cryptocurrencies, Fidelity Clearing Canada ULC has been approved by regulators to become the country’s first custodian for bitcoin.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, the leading proxy advisors in the United States, have announced updates and clarifications for their voting guidelines for the 2022 proxy season.

The Powell Pivot is the one thing that can compete with Omicron for investor attention. That will be clear when the Federal Reserve discusses a faster taper of its bond purchases at this week’s meeting, due to conclude on Wednesday.

The result that emerges is known as “trimmed mean” inflation. With America facing its most sustained price pressure since 1990, this narrower measure is more than an academic exercise.

On November 25, SSMU’s Legislative Council voted to approve a motion calling for the resignation of President Darshan Daryanani in light of his ongoing absence. As per section six, subsection 1.2 of SSMU’s Internal Regulations of Governance, the motion was scheduled to be ratified by the Board of Directors (BoD) at their December 2 meeting.

Although Executives previously told the Daily that SSMU’s staff have “nothing to do with the politics of the Society,” they have since characterized Daryanani’s absence as an HR issue, separate from Society politics. Because of this, the reason and duration of Daryanani’s absence have not been shared with the Legislative Council, and Executives have not confirmed whether Daryanani is on paid leave.

he INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre and Heidrick & Struggles conducted a global survey of board directors. Our goal was to investigate how boards understand and are coping with the process of decarbonization and how far climate change has been integrated into their oversight responsibilities.

Sun Life has selected Scott Powers as the new chair of its board of directors. Powers will assume leadership of the board following the company’s annual meeting next year, on May 11, 2022. He succeeds Bill Anderson, who will retire once Powers takes on the role.

Shareholder activism among British firms has soared in the past year as investors take a stand on issues from governance to the environment, figures reveal. 

Major revolts against the reappointment of directors at FTSE 350 businesses have climbed by 40 per cent, up from 30 in 2020 to 42 this year, Thomson Reuters data showed. 

The companies earning the highest marks in this year’s Management Top 250 ranking have capitalized on what is now a nearly two-year stretch of pandemic-driven economic upheaval that has changed the way people work and shop.

At the Glasgow climate summit in November, more than 140 countries announced goals to reach net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.

In 2020, SPACs accounted for most of the money raised through IPOs on U.S. exchanges.  SPACs are also big business in the M&A world, completing nearly $80 billion worth of acquisitions in 2020 alone, and it is not surprising that non-U.S. exchanges are falling over themselves to take a piece of the SPAC action. 

State Street Global Advisors (“SSGA”), one of Wall Street’s “Big Three” asset managers, has very recently been featured in the news for adopting a new policy where its recruiters will need to seek a diversity panel’s approval if they want to hire a white male management candidate over a woman or an ethnic minority. SSGA has been quick to reject these “factually inaccurate” reports that stipulate approval would be required to hire a white man, but they have also emphasized their continued focus on diversity.