Riskmetrics Group Releases Voting Policies For 2010 Proxy Season

On November 20, RiskMetrics Group released its 2010 updates to its proxy voting guidelines. The publication of the guidelines follows a comment period on draft policies that ended on November 11. Notably, updates to its Canadian benchmark corporate governance policy were also released. Citing the recent attention in Canada on slate ballots and executive compensation, the updates focus particularly on these two issues.

With respect to slate ballots, RiskMetrics will now recommend a withold vote on directors with slate ballots where it has identified corporate governance practices falling short of best practice or where there exist concerns regarding compensation practices and the alignment of pay with performance. Such governance practices that, in addition to a slate ballot, could result in a withhold recommendation include: the participation of insiders on key committees, the lack of a separate nominating or compensation committee, a disconnect between pay and