[Contributed Article] Shareholder Derivative Suits by the National Pension Fund — Is the Stewardship Responsibility Expert Committee Unqualified? (January 26, 2022)

Since the Fund Management Committee cannot make every decision itself, it has established three expert subcommittees under it.

These are the Stewardship Responsibility Expert Committee (hereafter the Committee), the Performance Compensation Expert Committee, and the Investment Policy Expert Committee. Of these, the Committee’s core function is to review or decide the following matters concerning the National Pension’s responsible investment and its exercise of shareholder rights over the listed shares it holds, and to report the results to the Fund Management Committee.

According to press reports, the Fund Management Committee plans to revise its guidelines so that the Stewardship Responsibility Expert Committee (hereafter the Committee) becomes the body that decides whether to file a derivative suit, while the practical work related to litigation is handled by the Fund Management Headquarters. The point at which business-sector figures voice concern is whether the Committee has sufficient expertise to make such decisions, and also whether this could lead to an excessive number of lawsuits driven from outside — in particular, lawsuits used by those in power to punish companies.

https://m.newspim.com/news/view/20220126000045