BlackRock, with Vanguard and State Street, own a big chunk of the ASX 200, exceeding 5% or more of many companies. Hence their stewardship policies matter for ensuring investor support. Last month BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BlackRock or BIS) updated the annual Global Principles for Benchmarking Policies. This policy is intended to be read in conjunction with the regional BIS Proxy Voting Guidelines for Benchmarking. BlackRock are yet to release the updated 2026 Australian voting guidelines. The voting guidelines specific to the US have been released.

No wholesale changes have been made to the Global Principals on the section ‘Executive compensation and benefits’. Much of the difference comes from word choice and sentence structures as the underlying compensation philosophy seems to be set in stone. There is a shift in tone of language used by BlackRock which has become more neutral. Previous word choice of ‘should’ has been replaced with phrases such as ‘encourage’ and ‘appreciate’. Instead of ‘voting against’ or ‘concerns’, it is now ‘not support’ and ‘encourage disclosure’.

BlackRock encourage companies to clearly explain how compensation outcomes have rewarded performance rather than solely base increases in total compensation on peer benchmarking.

Links to the policies can be found HERE.

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