On 1 October 2002, the ethos Investment Foundation launched a new segment, “Swiss indexed equities, Corporate Governance”.
The first of its kind in Switzerland, the segment’s twofold objective is to reflect the equities market and actively to
promote enhanced corporate governance.
The approximately 100 stocks in the portfolio are considered to have adequate liquidity and do not fall within ethos exclusion
criteria. An active dialogue is engaged with the corporations concerned, in particular regarding their corporate governance
practices. Shareholders systematically exercise their voting rights in accordance with the Foundation’s voting
guidelines.
This management approach is in keeping with that applied in other Foundation segments which aims to promote investment in
corporate leaders in sustainable development. Indeed, thanks to the new segment’s indexed and active approach to corporate
governance, ethos can also have an impact on companies that lag behind their competitors from the environmental and social
points of view.
The pension funds subscribing to this segment receive the agendas for annual general meetings about ten days early, enabling
them to use the voting recommendations for their entire portfolio of stocks. This gives them an extremely simple means of
systematically, actively and responsibly exercising their shareholder voting rights in respect of the 100 biggest publicly
listed Swiss corporations. It constitutes a positive response to the new provisions of the second implementing regulations of
the Swiss Federal law on employee pension funds (OPP2), which entered into force in January 2002 and require pension funds to
determine the way in which they intend to exercise their rights as shareholders.
