State Street becomes last of 'Big Three' to expand proxy voting

More than 40% of index equity assets

State Street Global Advisors, the asset management arm of State Street, has extended its proxy voting program to some institutional investors, becoming the final of the world’s ‘Big Three’ asset managers to do so.

The new program will offer UK and US investors in more than 40% of the index equity assets managed by SSGA to vote on how their shares vote. SSGA said that over time, it intends to expand investor directed voting choice to "as many of its index equity assets under management as possible". Voting policies will be made available to SSGA investors through Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a recognized independent proxy voting provider. State Street cancels $3.5bn acquisition of Brown Brothers arm SSGA clients in separately managed accounts already had the ability to eit...