About Session
Bondholders represent an underutilized force in driving transparency, and accountability in fixed income markets. Globally, the bond market is larger than the stock market and provides investors an additional avenue to engage on topics with issuers. The issues and tactics used by bondholders in engaging on holdings are similar to those of shareholder engagement but occur on a different timeline and without the same degree of regulatory oversight. This provides opportunities for investors to engage issuers on both use of proceeds and sustainability initiatives given the policy landscape today. As such, bondholders are in a unique position and have a powerful lever to use engagement to encourage issuers to enhance their disclosures on financially material environmental and social initiatives, impact reporting, and other critical topics that help investors determine downside risks, mission- and values- alignment, and economic upsides of their fixed income investments. Bondholder engagements can also supplement shareholder advocacy. The session will explore the structure, potential outcomes, and evolving practices in bondholder engagement, highlight examples of work by the Bondholder Working Group at ICCR, and discuss ways ICCR members can support and expand future engagement opportunities.
