ESG Archive

More than half (53 percent) of investors say board diversity is top of mind going into the coming proxy season, according to the 2019 Proxy Season Preview report from the EY Center for Board Matters. The survey of more than 60 institutional investors, with assets under management of $32 tn, shows investors are increasingly focused on board composition. This year’s figure of 53 percent saying the issue should be a top board focus is up from a third three years ago....

UK companies have an opportunity to learn from US counterparts on CEO pay ratios, according to a leading US compensation consultancy. This comes since the introduction of new rules in the UK after similar rules were introduced in the US by the SEC last year.   Marc Hodak, a partner at US-based executive compensation consultancy Farient Advisors, ...

Evidence of the link between investment returns and companies’ ESG commitments is mounting exponentially, showing that ESG should no longer be viewed as a fad and fueling scrutiny from asset managers. With this in mind, Curley Global IR (CGIR) in 2018 conducted research into ESG-related issues such as sustainability definitions, materiality and disclosure, issuer engagement and perspectives on current best practices. CGIR’s data derives from detailed discussions...

Lloyds Banking Group and Citi are the only two financial firms to make it into the top 20 of the Top 100 Employers compiled by UK LGBT campaign group Stonewall, coming seventh and ninth, respectively.   Throughout the full list, which comprises companies that provide an LGBT-inclusive environment, there is a sparse grouping of financial organizations: Barclays is 28th, ratings firm Moody’s 44th, Bank of America Merrill Lynch 50th, Credit Suisse 64th and UK regul...