Allianz Global Investors ( AllianzGI ) has reinforced its governance and sustainable stewardship push with the release of its 2026 global voting policy updates.

In 2025, the firm, it notes, participated in 8,690 shareholder meetings, voting on nearly 90,000 proposals and dissenting on at least one item at 71% of meetings. It opposed 21% of director elections, often due to concerns about tenure, overboarding and weak committee independence.

Each year, the asset manager, it notes, reviews its proxy voting guidelines to ensure alignment with its expectations for governance and sustainability across global markets. For 2026, several notable enhancements have been introduced:

• Independence of the chair – AllianzGI will no longer support non-independent chairs who previously served as combined chair/CEO, reinforcing the importance of independent oversight.
• Inclusion – From 2027, the company expects boards to be no more than 85% of the same gender, extending its inclusion expectations across Asia.
• Executive remuneration – As environmental, social and governance ( ESG ) metrics become more common, the company is raising expectations for their quality and now implementing stricter requirements with respect to what it considers suitable metrics. Key performance indicators ( KPIs ) must align with the company’s long-term strategy and be materially relevant to both the business model and sector. The company also expects companies to avoid double rewarding performance across short-  and long-term incentive plans. The firm will vote against pay policies using the same KPIs for both short-  and long-term incentives.

Voting trends, insights

Remuneration remained a key area of dissent in 2025. In Europe, opposition rates, the asset manager points out, were particularly high in Belgium ( 55% ), the Netherlands ( 51% ), Italy ( 47% ) and Germany ( 40% ).

Despite improvements in disclosure, issues such as weak pay performance alignment and overly discretionary awards persisted. Italy drew additional scrutiny, with the asset manager opposing around half of remuneration reports as discretionary payout options by the board were one of the concerns.

In the United States, the firm opposed 77% of remuneration proposals, driven by concerns over increasing equity-based awards and special recruitment grants. The asset manager continued to advocate for performance-based equity awards with stretching performance hurdles over restricted stock.

At Russell 3000 companies, the number of shareholder proposals declined by nearly 16%, the asset manager shares, driven in part by regulatory adjustments as well as a more focused approach by proponents. The company voted on 501 shareholder resolutions in the US, including governance, compensation, social, environmental and mixed issue proposals. The company supported all climate-related proposals focused on improving disclosure, reporting and transparency, but rejected those aiming to restrict corporate climate analysis or action.

All 26 human rights related resolutions also received the asset manager’s support, alongside proposals calling for improved transparency on political spending and lobbying. The company highlights the emergence of shareholder resolutions concerning artificial intelligence and has developed an engagement framework to enable better understanding of the associated governance and sustainability risks.

Board composition remains central to the asset manager’s stewardship work. In 2025, the company voted against 21% of director elections, with particular concerns in markets where long tenures, overboarding or weak committee independence remain prevalent – such as Germany and France ( 33% opposition ).

The company, it states, continues to challenge elections in Italy’s voto di lista system and voted against 36% of resolutions, where bundled voting restricts investor choice. The asset manager also emphasizes the importance of proactive succession planning for both board chairs and executive directors.

Asian proxy voting

In China, the asset manager, it says, continues to see a rise in the number of capitalization proposals, with more mainland companies pursuing overseas dual listings or private placements due to supportive valuations and regulatory approvals.

In 2025, the company voted against 9% of these proposals, primarily where it saw risks of excessive dilution or weakened existing shareholder rights. With merger and acquisiton activity, particularly among state-owned enterprises and corporate restructurings expected to continue into 2026, the asset manager states, it will sharpen its focus on valuation fairness, strategic rationale and the impact on ownership and minority shareholders.

In Hong Kong, the asset manager voted against 36% of director elections, unchanged from 2024. With the Hong Kong Stock Exchange implementing new corporate governance code and listing rule requirements on July 1 2025, which include limits on independent director tenure and multiple directorships, the company notes that it expects more meaningful progress in board refreshment and transition planning in the coming years.

While broader structural change remains gradual, some positive signs are emerging, including more lead independent director appointments, but the combined chair-CEO role remains a key governance concern and a major driver of the asset manager’s votes against directors.

In Japan, votes against directors ( 14% ) and director related proposals ( 32% ) continued to decline, the asset manager reports, supported by key structural improvements: more outside directors with extended cooling-off periods, wider adoption of audit or three-committee structures and greater gender diversity – with many companies appointing at least two female directors, exceeding regulatory minimums.

In Taiwan, the dissent rate on compensation-related items fell significantly to 37% ( from 69% in 2024 ). This improvement, the asset manager shares, coincides with greater transparency in board remuneration and better-structured incentive plans, where share price discounts are more appropriately tied to performance hurdles for executives and reasonable terms for employees.

At the same time, regulators in Asia, the asset manager shares, are also moving quickly to eliminate single-gender boards, with most markets now requiring at least one female director as a baseline.

Building on these minimum requirements, the asset manager points out, it will use 2026 as an engagement window to encourage companies to move beyond minimum compliance by achieving at least 15% representation of the underrepresented gender on boards, ahead of introducing a more stringent voting policy in 2027 that will scrutinize the re-election of nomination committee chairs.”

“Across Asia, regulatory reforms are facilitating stewardship and creating more room for constructive dialogue with companies,” adds Chris Liu, AllianzGI’s Hong Kong-based stewardship analyst. “In China, lower thresholds for filing shareholder recommendations and rising scrutiny of capital raising are giving investors stronger levers to protect minority shareholder rights.

“In Hong Kong, new rules on director tenure, overboarding and board governance are beginning to drive long overdue board refreshment. Meanwhile, reforms in Japan and Taiwan – ranging from improved committee structures to clearer remuneration frameworks – are encouraging more balanced, independent boards and earlier succession planning.”