Much briefer but similar in theme to BlackRock's "The Investment Stewardship Ecosystem," which we reported on in a recent Society Alert, State Street Global President & CEO Cyrus Taraporevala's Financial Times op-ed responds to recent criticisms aimed at its ESG engagement and voting activities by emphasizing its focus on issues that have the potential to materially affect companies' financial performance over the long-term - expressly countering the notion that its activities or aims are politically or socially motivated. The op-ed defends active engagement by index funds, i.e., so-called permanent capital (or nearly so) to communicate their preferences and effect change consistent with a long-term view.
Also notable: While Taraporevala affirms SSGA's use of proxy adviser data and analytics, he also indicates it never outsources its voting decisions, and urges other institutional investors not to do so:
In addition, while we will use the data and analytics provided by proxy advisers, we never outsource our voting decisions and we urge other institutional investors not to do so. These issues are too important to outsource and they are growing more complex.
See also this InvestmentNews article: "Why investors should diversify more than just their assets." This post first appeared in last week's weekly Society Alert!