More than a dozen Republican state financial officers are demanding answers from two firms with major influence in Wall Street in the latest battle over ESG and “woke” investing.
“State financial officers began this dialogue with ISS and Glass Lewis earlier this year, as they pushed back against ESG investing, but the fight continues,” Derek Kreifels, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. “We continue to see financial institutions and proxy voting services privilege ESG considerations in shareholder proposals while ignoring others focused on upholding a company’s fiduciary duty.
“Given the discussion earlier about conservative proponents … for the most recent year for which data is available , you supported approximately 53% of Social Shareholder proposals and 60% of Environmental Shareholder Proposals, but 0% of shareholder proposals from conservative groups,” the letter to Glass Lewis reads. “This does not appear to be even-handed treatment.”
“You did not present adequate data to fully address the issue of political bias,” the letter to ISS reads. “For example, you did not supply the equivalent data for your support for proposals from conservative groups, even though we asked several specific questions about that.”