Shifting Ground: Emerging Global Corporate-Governance Standards and the Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism

In this paper we examine the long-term interests that large institutional owners (for example, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, Hermes, and the Universities Superannuation Scheme) have in the development of global corporate governance standards, especially as governance standards increasingly become intertwined with other standards and regime parameters involved in the globalization debates. We argue that institutional owners have a unique perspective and voice with which to contribute to the formulation of global standards in a variety of areas on the basis of their long-term financial interests. This conclusion is supported by an analytic review of the current state of global corporate governance, including multilateral initiatives (for example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank); an analysis of significant institutional investors, the role of various rating agencies (for example, Fitch, Moody's), the International Corporate Governance Network, and the growing role of various nongovernmental organizations (for example, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economics, the Carbon Disclosure Project) in relation to corporate governance.