FTSE Russell says most investors support voting rights

which included asset managers and other stakeholders, offered comments on whether to include a voting rights threshold and if so, at what level.

FTSE Russell began the survey amid concerns about the initial public offering of Snapchat parent

which lacked voting rights, and said it will give a detailed outline of its proposed approach in coming weeks.

The company had previously said it was leaning toward setting a minimum threshold for the percentage of voting rights given to public investors, and that most stakeholders backed the idea, but the report on Tuesday was a more formal statement of its findings.

A FTSE Russell spokesman said executives were not immediately available to give more details.

Other index providers are also reviewing the corporate structure of companies which list non-voting shares, which increases the power of company insiders.

Just how aggressively the index providers should insist on voting rights is a hot topic in corporate governance. Companies with the structure have argued it allows them to focus on longer-term business planning.

There are currently no index eligibility requirements concerning voting rights for FTSE Russell’s indexes, and members of a committee advising on the issue worry that if a threshold level for voting rights is not set, “the door could potentially be opened for an increasing number of companies to list without voting rights in the future,” FTSE Russell’s report on Tuesday explained.