November 5, 2025
New Vesting Factors in ISS Governance QualityScore
ISS Sustainability Solutions, the sustainable investment arm of ISS STOXX, announced updates to its Governance QualityScore for institutional investors last week. The updates introduce several new factors and extend existing factors to new markets. In addition to new factors that assess oversight of AI, four new questions for the U.S. market also address vesting periods for variable pay plans. Based on the detailed new Methodology Highlights (available for download), the new questions are:
What is the CEO vesting period for time-based options and/or stock appreciation rights? (Q475)
What is the CEO vesting period for time-based restricted stock? (Q476)
What is the CEO vesting period for performance-based options and/or stock appreciation rights? (Q477)
What is the CEO vesting period for performance-based restricted stock? (Q478)
At the same time, ISS announced a data verification period from November 10 to 21 during which companies can verify and submit changes to their data on all factors, new and old, before scores are made available under the updated methodology.
– Meredith Ervine
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