Congratulations to the winners of this year’s IR Magazine’s #IRAwards, honoring excellence in the investor relations profession across the globe. Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN) is especially proud to service and partner with companies that won 13 of the 28 awards. Highlights include:

Investors are largely united in pressing their portfolio companies to provide material, quantitative, decision-useful information on their environmental, social & governance (ESG) risks and opportunities.  And an increasing number of US companies are responding (including through information at their web-sites, fact sheets, and comprehensive reports).  Yet many other companies have been reticent to begin on this ESG disclosure journey. 

In the video above, hear a highlight the ESG corporate reporting entities research, which provides high-level advice on best practices around data management that can be applied across corporate reporting entities with Steven Wade, IR Magazine and John Truzzolino, Director of Corporate Governance Services at DFIN.

Over the past few years, the SEC has issued a wave of regulations that have increased the demands for structured data. The updated disclosure regulations requiring iXBRL tagging for variable insurance products follow that trend.

Guardum is now Data Protect Solutions.

CIOReview, a leading technology magazine and trustworthy knowledge source for enterprises, has determined Guardum and its Data Protect Solutions are at the forefront of providing GDPR solutions and transforming business. Many of the reasons for this selection were revealed in a related article and interview with Darren Wray, a security and data privacy expert at DFIN and former Data Protection Officer.

The article reveals:

Mergers and acquisitions move quickly, and it’s never been more critical to understand the intricacies and trends in M&A deal terms, a collection of important provisions negotiated in M&A transactions. Using eBrevia’s AI-powered contract analytics software, our M&A webinar panel analyzed hundreds of contracts for common M&A deal terms, such as Go Shop vs No Shop, Gold in Back Yard, MAE and Termination Fees.

Actively-managed investors evaluate risks and opportunities before selecting stocks to add to their portfolios. Indexed or "passive" investors, who have been increasingly in size over the past decade, may not have the same opportunity as active managers to "pick and choose" which companies they will own, but once they find them owning them, they are keenly interested in understanding the risks and opportunities facing those companies, and are eager to eager to engage their portfolio companies on these issues in the course of their ongoing "stewardship" efforts.

In recent years the FinTech industry has experienced significant changes on every front, from increased regulatory requirements to growing investor expectations. In this article, Eric Johnson, DFIN’s president of Global Investment Companies, addresses the top issues facing fund and asset companies heading into 2022.

At this time last year, the outlook for 2021 was heavily influenced by the global pandemic and how FinTech companies were pivoting to meet shifting needs. How did DFIN see that play out over the last 12 months?

Every issuer is on its own ESG journey, regardless of whether the firm is disclosing ESG and sustainability reports today. As ESG initiatives and decision-useful reporting continue to gain importance, many C-suite and boards of directors are truly starting to pay attention. The power of ESG is only beginning to be unlocked as companies realize ESG risk equates to financial risk.   Ownership of ESG and sustainability should reside at the top of any company with full support for the CEO and the board. 

Demystifying the Legal Tech journey with Stephanie Siu, APAC Legal Counsel and Project Manager at eBrevia, a DFIN company

Legal tech has gained considerable traction amongst law firms and corporate legal departments over the past several years. From data or document analytics, document automation to project and workflow management – the progressive adoption of technology in the legal industry has reflected the fact that many such tools are market-ready and have started transforming the way legal practitioners work.