National Pension Service to Expand Disclosure of Voting Direction...Strengthening Stewardship Responsibilities

The scope of prior disclosure regarding how the National Pension Service will exercise its voting rights will be expanded. Measures will also be pursued to strengthen stewardship activities, such as improving the criteria for selecting companies subject to "dialogue with companies."

Yonhap News Agency

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on February 10, 2026, that, in accordance with the decision of the Special Committee on Stewardship Responsibility, starting from the regular general shareholders' meetings in March this year, the scope of prior disclosure of how the National Pension Fund will exercise its voting rights will be expanded to "all agenda items of companies in which it holds a stake of 5% or more, or a holding ratio of 1% or more, and all agenda items of general shareholders' meetings that include agenda items decided by the Special Committee on Stewardship Responsibility."

The previous disclosure scope was "all agenda items of companies in which it holds a stake of 10% or more, or a holding ratio of 1% or more, and all agenda items of general shareholders' meetings that include agenda items decided by the Special Committee on Stewardship Responsibility."

In addition, when the Special Committee on Stewardship Responsibility decides to exercise voting rights in opposition, it plans to fully disclose detailed reasons, including the grounds for opposition.

The National Pension Service will also revise the "Guidelines for Stewardship Activities for Domestic Stocks of the National Pension Fund" so that stewardship activities can fully take into account companies' shareholder return efforts, such as the retirement (cancellation) of treasury shares.

The National Pension Service has designated "establishment of corporate dividend policies" as one of its key management issues and is conducting "dialogue with companies," under which companies are selected for non-public dialogue if they fail to establish a reasonable dividend policy or fail to pay dividends in line with a reasonable dividend policy.

Previously, companies were selected based on having a low dividend payout ratio. Going forward, the criterion will be changed to the "total shareholder return ratio" so that efforts to protect shareholder value through shareholder returns, including the retirement of treasury shares in addition to cash dividends, can be taken into consideration.

First Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Seuran said, "We will continue to uphold the principle of enhancing fund returns, while preparing measures that enable stewardship activities that protect asset value and earn the trust of the public."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.