Stewardship News

ICGN approves guidance on investors’ fiduciary responsibilities
The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) approved, in its Annual Conference held in June, a new document that guides institutional investors regarding their fiduciary duties. The project was prepared by ICGN’s Shareholder Responsibilities Committee, chaired by Niels Lemmers, Director of the European Investors’ Association (IVZW). The Guidance complements the Global Stewardship Principles, approved by the ICGN in 2016, and highlights the importance of maintaining consistency between investor’s governance practices and investors’ fiduciary responsibilities.
The document translates the state-of-the-art discussion about fiduciary duties, including topics that, if not yet properly addressed in Brazil, will be in the short term.
The document is available here
Global Stewardship Codes Developers Network discusses engagement and current affairs
The members of the Global Stewardship Codes Developers Network (GSCN) met in Milan during ICGN’s annual conference. The meeting, led by Chris Hodge, former director of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), addressed topics such as the working paper of the Institute of Corporate Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) – the document is available here – about shareholders’ engagement (mentioned in our June newsletter).
The members took advantage of the meeting to announce the updates made to their stewardship codes and programs. Highlights were the presentations of Netherlands, Japan, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.
Rients Abma, from Eumedion – representative of Dutch institutional investors -, talked about the  Dutch Stewardship Code, which builds on Eumedion’s Stewardship Principles.  In line with the European Directive of Shareholders’ Rights, the code will be used by all institutional investors. The adoption of the principles is mandatory for Dutch listed investee companies and voluntary for non-Dutch listed investee companies. The code will be effective in 2019 and asset owners and managers should apply to its principles and report on its implementation in the same year.
The Financial Services Agency (FSA), regulator of the Japanese capital markets, introduced the results of the update of its Stewardship Code. In addition to the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), several corporate funds followed the same path, including Panasonic’s and Esai Pharmaceuticals’.
In Taiwan, the code launched by the local stock exchange in 2016 (same year of the Amec Stewardship Code) already has 59 signatories. In the United Kingdom, the expectation is about the review of the UK Stewardship Code, to be implemented by the FRC in the second half of the year.