Concerns over boards' remuneration and election policies still dominate the concerns of institutional investors, a new study has revealed.

With AGM season fast approaching, shareholder communications and corporate governance advisory firm HQB Partners has published its annual Governance and Voting Survey (PDF) of UK, US, French and Dutch investors.

The survey reveals that 50% of the respondents expect to vote more against companies’ remuneration policies in 2011 than they did in 2010, and that elections and re-elections to companies’ boards was also a major source of concern.

Governance and/or voting teams at 32 institutional investors managing assets worth over €11 trillion took part in the survey, an increase of 40% on the 2010 response.

Over 97% of respondents said they had active engagement policies in place with the companies they’ve invested in, and 81% of that figure expect engagement levels to increase in the coming year.

David Dando, director of corporate governance at HQB Partners, commented on this: “Corporate governance and engagement with companies has clearly come of age for institutional investors. We have recently noted an increase in the number of UK institutions voting abroad, which is sure to have an impact on European issuers.”