Rockville, Md.-based proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) is expanding its corporate governance coverage of Canadian companies.
ISS announced on Tuesday that its global corporate governance scorecard for institutional investors, QuickScore, will be expanded to include more than 150 companies outside the S&P/TSX composite index and all of the companies ISS covers in the Canadian market will be evaluated on five additional governance factors.
QuickScore, which aims to help investors assess corporate governance risk, measures each company’s risk overall and on four broad pillars: board structure, compensation/remuneration, shareholder rights, and audit and risk oversight.
Changes for its coverage in other markets include: reporting whether companies in the U.S. index, the Russell 3000, allow for proxy access; coverage in the U.K. is being expanded to FTSE all share index constituents plus additional Irish companies; and it is also expanding coverage in South Africa.
“With these latest enhancements to QuickScore, subscribers will benefit from broader and deeper portfolio coverage complemented by updated methodologies and additional data-points, including information about proxy access at U.S. companies,” said Marija Kramer, head of product development at ISS.