ISS ESG Governance QualityScore (200+ factors, governance data)

Governance QualityScore is an objective data-driven approach to measure and identify areas of risk in Board Structure, Compensation programs, Shareholder Rights, and Audit & Risk Oversight. Governance QualityScore rests on the analysis of more than 200 factors and a robust data set, and features company-level decile scores for a quick understanding of the drivers of a company’s governance risk, and pillar scores to assess governance attributes under the categories above. Decile scores provide an indication of relative governance quality supported by factor-level data that is critical to the research process, while historical scores and data provide greater context and trending analysis to understand a company’s approach to governance over time. Covering more than 6,800 companies in 30 markets, Governance QualityScore scores indicate a company’s governance risk relative to its index and region. A score of 1 indicates higher quality governance practices and lower governance risk, while a score of 10 indicates the opposite. • More than 200 factors are analyzed, with the specific factors under analysis varying by region, and ranging up to 124 factors in one region • Methodology focuses on quantitative and qualitative aspects of governance, including global standards and alignment with ISS voting policy in each region • Methodology identifies the range of practices that issuers adopt on each governance factor, categorized to reflect most common practices • Weighting of each factor and scoring of each individual answer is determined through a combination of quantitative modelling and qualitative judgment based on ISS ESG’s expertise • Scores are refreshed daily and are relative to an index (i.e. SP500) or region (i.e. Nordic) • Issuers are invited to review and verify their data year-round • Annual review ensures the methodology remains in step with the ISS benchmark policies as they adapt to reflect developments in regulatory/market practice • Year-round focus, with event-driven data updates for capturing changes to a company’s governance structure on an ongoing basis Data is collected from company filings, as well as ongoing event-driven data updates as reflected in public disclosure, press releases and company websites. Companies undergo regular top-to-bottom reviews and are verified by ISS’ corporate governance analysts. In addition to internal reviews for quality, companies may receive an opportunity to verify their data using one of ISS’ data verification and/or draft review processes. Company research and ratings are updated daily, based on newly published, publicly available information. Data is used by a broad range of institutional investors, asset managers, asset owners, fund managers, banks, government institutions, universities and research firms.