ISS releases policies for 2019 shareholders’ meetings

The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) released its voting recommendation policy effective for meetings after February 2019. Among the updates, the ISS announced a new policy on gender diversity that will be applicable for companies in either the Russell 3000 and S&P 1500 indices. After the year-long grace period (2019), that is, from 2020 on, companies with no female directors serving on their boards can receive recommendations against the election of the chair of the nominating committee. In cases where there is no formal nominating committee, recommendations against the election of other directors who are responsible for the board nomination process can also be made.
For the Brazilian and Latin American markets, the ISS has maintained its policy that recommends that boards should have a relevant number of independent directors. For the 2019 general meeting season, the agency included an additional item in the list of characteristics of independent directors: any director who has served for 12 or more years on the board will be deemed non-independent.
Check out ISS updates for 2019 here.