Standard Bank: The unwilling pioneer
The bank is allowing a vote relating to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change after activists requested it
Full marks to the Standard Bank board for agreeing, albeit perhaps a little reluctantly, to table a shareholder resolution addressing climate risk at its upcoming AGM. Ironically, though the board is recommending that shareholders vote against the resolution, its implementation would bring Standard Bank’s disclosure policy in line with that of its single largest shareholder, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). This is not the first time SA shareholders have taken advantage of provisions in the Companies Act of 2008 (section 65) allowing them to table a resolution, but it is the first time a board has not rejected the move. And so Standard Bank rightly deserves its place in SA’s legal history books. Last year the boards of Sasol and Trencor slapped down efforts by their shareholders to table resolutions. In the process they looked dictatorial and out of touch with a new, more enlightened corporate governance era. Trencor might take comfort from being at a comfortable di...
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