UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal

After the UK published the UK Stewardship Code in 2010, several other jurisdictions followed suit and published their own versions of stewardship codes. The focus on institutional investor stewardship has become a global trend in recent years. In 2016, Taiwan joined the trend by launching the “Stewardship Principles for Institutional Investors” (Taiwan Stewardship Code). As the Taiwan Stewardship Code has been based on the UK Stewardship, this Article first conducts a comparative analysis between the Taiwan and UK Stewardship Codes. To shed more light on institutional investor stewardship in Taiwan, this Article reviews the 2020 stewardship reports of all 153 signatories of the Taiwan Stewardship Code, which were released exactly five years after the launch of the Taiwan Stewardship Code . Examining the signatories’ stewardship activities in several aspects, this Article found that the signatories’ stewardship is far from satisfying. Not only does the level of stewardship fall short of the Taiwan Stewardship Code’s expectations, but the signatories also have not been following the requirements of the Taiwan Stewardship Code. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the Taiwan Stewardship Code has been ineffective in promoting stewardship among Taiwan institutional investors. To achieve that end, the Taiwan Stewardship Code will need to be revised significantly. This Article proposes and analyzes several potential improvements to the Taiwan Stewardship Code so that it can ultimately strengthen Taiwan’s corporate governance system.