US-based asset manager State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has extended the ability of investors in index equity funds to choose a proxy voting policy. SSgA’s existing programme will expand to provide investors in all US institutional index equity funds offered by the firm in the US with a range of voting policies, enabling them to direct how shares owned by the funds are voted. Further, investors in certain US equity index SPDR ETFs and US mutual funds managed by SSgA, which primarily hold US securities, will also have the ability to direct the voting of the shares owned by those funds, via selection of a proxy voting policy. By the end of 2023, investors in 82% of eligible index equity assets managed by SSgA will have the ability to make choices in how shares held in the funds and separately managed accounts they own are voted. The voting policies will be made available through Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a recognised independent proxy voting provider. Shareholders of institutional funds that are eligible for the programme can continue to delegate their votes to the State Street Global Advisors Asset Stewardship team.
