The US global financial services State Street, famous for installing the popular ‘Fearless Girl’ statue in New York City in 2017, has dropped targets for the number of women and minority directors who serve on corporate boards in its assets management unit.
Last week, the company posted a new global proxy voting policy guidance on its website. Absent in the document was the expectation of boards of companies in major indexes to be 30 per cent female. The quota was published in the previous policy guidelines of State Street Global Advisors in March 2024, and maintained that failure to comply could risk votes against nominating committee members.
Bigger S&P 500 companies were also expected to have at least one racial or ethnic minority director — a target which is also missing in the latest edition of the guidelines.
Instead, the guidelines state that individual board nominating committees are “best placed to choose the governance structure that is most appropriate for that company.”
In a statement sent to Reuters by a representative, State Street said: “We annually review our proxy voting and engagement policy to ensure alignment with global protocols and local laws and regulations, guided by our core principles of effective board oversight, disclosure, and shareholder protection and a singular focus on value creation.”
The changes are likely to be in line with several other major asset managers falling under political pressure to drop DEI initiatives and efforts since Trump’s second presidential term commenced in January this year.
In the past week, Warner Bros. Discovery, Goldman Sachs and Paramount have altered or minimised their company’s respective DEI approaches.
On the eve of International Women’s Day 2017, the Boston-based firm placed Fearless Girl in New York’s financial district to “ignite a conversation about the importance of gender diversity in corporate leadership”, as stated on their website.
According to MSCI Analytics, 71 per cent of companies in the Russell 3000, a broad equity index made up of the 3,000 largest U.S. listed stocks — had at least one female director in 2017. In 2024, that percentage had reached 99.
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