BlackRock has expanded the voting choice options for clients, making them available, in the first instance, to their institutional clients invested in index strategies.
The firm writes that this will apply within institutional separate accounts globally and certain pooled funds managed by BlackRock in the US and UK, approximately 40 per cent of the USD4.8 trillion index equity assets that BlackRock manages for their clients.
The firm writes that it is committed to exploring all options to expand proxy voting choice to even more investors, including those invested in ETFs, index mutual funds and other products. This initiative will require the cooperation of additional partners across the investment and proxy voting ecosystem. In certain instances, it will also require regulatory and operational system change, the firm says.
