De amerikanske myndigheder vil nu have mere styr på, hvordan de store internationale proxy advisors rådgiver institutionelle investorer om stemmeafgivelse på børsnoterede selskabers generalforsamlinger. Proxy advisors har uden tvivl enorm indflydelse på investorernes aktive ejerskab, som ofte bliver mere eller mindre outsourcet. Rådgivningen vurderes at have stor indflydelse på selskabernes governance, udvikling og i sidste ende hele samfundsøkonomien.
Den amerikanske kongres har debatteret et oplæg, som har til formål “To improve the quality of proxy advisory firms for the protection of investors and the U.S. economy, and in the public interest, by fostering accountability, transparency, responsiveness, and competition in the proxy advisory firm industry.”
I oplægget hedder det blandt andet, at “their advice is used by some investors as one point of reference out of many in making voting 6decisions, while other investors may be overly reliant on the voting advice of proxy advisory firms as compared to portfolio managers who have a fiduciary 9 duty to their investors in exercising its shareholder 1 votes and use independent judgement in doing so; the foregoing occur in such volume as substantially to affect corporate governance, the securities markets, and the national economy.”
