The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed new rules affecting shareholder votes including the implementation of new regulations on proxy advisory firms to compel them to provide their voting recommendations to issuers such that these companies can review and respond prior to the proxy advisor releasing the recommendations to their clients - institutional investors.

In light of the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ISS released “Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic ISS Policy Guidance” on April 8, 2020 to provide stakeholders with some specific guidance on a number of voting policy issues that are likely to be directly impacted over the coming months by the pandemic and the global response to it.

On March 26, 2020, Glass Lewis announced that “Everything in Governance is Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic” and provided their view on how they expect the pandemic to affect issuers and markets.