Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced benchmark voting policy changes in the United
States, increasing expectations for board racial and ethnic
diversity, adding director accountability for environmental and
social failures and clarifying its position on forum selection
provisions included in a company's governance documents. The
revised policies, which were announced on November 12, 2020, will
generally apply to shareholder meetings held on or after February
1, 2021. The most significant of these policy changes are described
below.
Board Diversity
Considering recent social unrest related to racial and ethnic
inequalities and acknowledging that many investors support racial
and ethnic diversity on boards, ISS adopted a new policy related to
board racial and ethnic diversity, which provides that for
companies in the Russell 3000 or S&P 1500 index, effective for
meetings on or after February 1, 2022, ISS will generally recommend
a vote "against" or
