QUICK has started delivering Glass Lewis’ proxy voting platform, Viewpoint, to Daiwa Asset Management, a leading institutional investor in Japan.
Viewpoint is Glass Lewis’ premium, leading-edge solution for institutional investors to manage all of their proxy research, voting, and reporting needs. The software and service is comprehensive, providing efficient, flexible workflow; streamlining business processes between investors and custodians; and covering all equity securities the client holds both in Japan and in global markets. The Viewpoint platform also enables investors to vote proxies by seamlessly integrating their own custom policies as well as leveraging Glass Lewis’ expert research and voting recommendations.
Daiwa Asset Management said “As an investment firm, we exercise all of our proxy voting rights in order to execute our fiduciary duty. For foreign shares, we have decided to newly introduce Glass Lewis’ Viewpoint into our proxy voting procedures. We will exercise proxy voting rights in accordance with a customized policy based on our own guidelines and Glass Lewis’ recommendations, as we value their detailed research, transparent advisory reports, and global operational experience. For domestic shares, we have decided to follow the advice within Glass Lewis’ Proxy Paper research reports in case the appearance of a conflict of interest is concerned. Further influencing our decision to adopt the services was our appreciation that Glass Lewis, which previously had no operational site in Japan, has formed a business partnership with QUICK and developed a support system for Japanese institutional investors.”
QUICK provides ESG data and advisory services for investors to support their responsible investment strategies. In February 2016, QUICK forged a partnership with Glass Lewis to distribute the company’s proxy-related information in Japan. Glass Lewis’ Proxy Paper reports became available via the QUICK platform in May, and now the firms have started providing Viewpoint service.
As a PRI signatory and a CDP partner*1, QUICK continues to enhance the services it serves as an intermediary between industrial corporations and financial institutions such as pension funds, institutional investors, and securities.
About Glass Lewis
Glass Lewis is the leading independent provider of global governance services, helping institutional investors understand and connect with the companies they invest in. We are a trusted ally of more than 1,200 investors globally who use our high-quality, unbiased Proxy Paper research, industry-leading Viewpoint proxy vote management solution, and innovative Meetyl direct-engagement platform to help drive value across all their governance activities. Glass Lewis empowers institutional investors that collectively manage more than $25 trillion to make sound voting decisions at more than 20,000 meetings a year in 100 countries by uncovering and assessing governance, business, legal, political and accounting risks. Founded in 2003, Glass Lewis has more than 360 employees worldwide across offices from headquarters in San Francisco to New York, Washington D.C., Sydney, Australia, Limerick, Ireland, and Karlsruhe, Germany. More information available at www.glasslewis.com.
About QUICK ESG Research Center
QUICK established an ESG Research Center in 2014 and started the ESG advisory service based on ESG data and rating methodology provided by EIRIS (currently “VigeoEIRIS”) to institutional investors. In February 2015, QUICK launched advisory service for industrial corporations to foster their ESG strategies. Customers for this line of business are pension funds, institutional investors, corporate IR, CSR, Public Relations, planning departments and environmental improvement divisions.
In 2014, QUICK was selected to undertake the research mandate for Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), “Research project on how the Government Pension Fund should undertake Stewardship responsibilities and ESG investment”. Through the website, ESG analyst team provides research reports of global ESG issues, interview reports, and variety of information about responsible investment. Besides, QUICK has given lectures in several conferences aimed at pension funds, industrial companies, and institutional investors such as RI Asia and PRI symposium.
In July 2016, QUICK was selected as CDP’s water scoring partner. Taking advantages of this experience, QUICK helps customers to visualize the water-related risks and enhance the measurements. As a gold partner of CDP, QUICK provides Climate Change, Water, and Forest disclosure reports to institutional investors.