Institutional Shareholder Services Raises the Bar for Transparency and Responsiveness

Establishes New Feedback Review Board

ROCKVILLE, Md.--()--Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), a leading provider of corporate governance solutions to the global financial community, today announced that it has established a new Feedback Review Board, setting a new high water mark for transparency, openness and responsiveness.

The new ISS Feedback Review Board (FRB) is designed to serve as a conduit for investors, issuers and various market constituents to communicate with ISS. It is intended as a complement to, not a replacement for, the established channels for engagement with ISS, many of which have been in place for the greater part of a decade.

ISS’ research team engages with hundreds of companies, institutional investors, shareholder proponents and corporate advisors each year, through both in-person meetings and analyst conference calls. Setting a new standard, ISS initiated its highly inclusive annual pre-season policy survey and open comment period in 2005, has maintained an online verification tool for governance data since 2004 and has long been offering draft analyses to S&P 500 companies prior to issuing its final vote recommendations.

ISS also operates a dedicated U.S. Research HelpDesk, staffed by full-time employees who respond to policy questions and requests for policy interpretations; direct inquiries to specific analysts and address a variety of other research related matters that arise before, during and after proxy season.

“Effective engagement is an ISS hallmark that sets us far apart from other proxy advisory firms,” said Gary Retelny, President of ISS. “We already are committed to regular engagement as part of the research process and through our new Feedback Review Board, we can offer an additional and expanded level of interaction between ISS and all market constituencies.”

The FRB is led by Mr. Retelny and meets regularly to review submissions. Submissions may be made through ISS’ web site at www.issgovernance.com/frb.

About ISS

ISS, founded in 1985 as Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., is the world's leading provider of proxy advisory and corporate governance solutions to financial market participants. ISS' services include objective proxy research and analysis, end-to-end proxy voting and distribution solutions, turnkey securities class-action claims management, and reliable governance data and modeling tools. More than 1,700 clients rely on ISS' expertise to help them make informed corporate governance decisions. ISS is located in financial centers worldwide and is a subsidiary of MSCI Inc., a leading provider of investment decision support tools to investors globally. For more information, please visit www.issgovernance.com.

This document and all of the information contained in it, including without limitation all text, data, graphs, charts (collectively, the "Information") is the property of ISS, or in some cases third party suppliers.

The Information has not been submitted to, nor received approval from, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or any other regulatory body. None of the Information constitutes an offer to sell (or a solicitation of an offer to buy), or a promotion or recommendation of, any security, financial product or other investment vehicle or any trading strategy, and ISS does not endorse, approve or otherwise express any opinion regarding any issuer, securities, financial products or instruments or trading strategies.

The user of the Information assumes the entire risk of any use it may make or permit to be made of the Information.

ISS MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ORIGINALITY, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, COMPLETENESS, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE) WITH RESPECT TO ANY OF THE INFORMATION.

Without limiting any of the foregoing and to the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event shall ISS have any liability regarding any of the Information for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, consequential (including lost profits) or any other damages even if notified of the possibility of such damages. The foregoing shall not exclude or limit any liability that may not by applicable law be excluded or limited.

Contacts

ISS media contacts:
Cheryl Gustitus, 301-556.0395
cheryl.gustitus@issgovernance.com
or
Sarah Ball +44 (0)207 618 2275
sarah.ball@issgovernance.com

Release Summary

ISS announced today that it has established a new Feedback Review Board, setting a new high water mark for transparency, openness and responsiveness.

Contacts

ISS media contacts:
Cheryl Gustitus, 301-556.0395
cheryl.gustitus@issgovernance.com
or
Sarah Ball +44 (0)207 618 2275
sarah.ball@issgovernance.com