Shareholders don’t like it, nor do the regulators. It’s expressively forbidden to be included in appraisals. Unfortunately, evidence uncovered by the Financial Reporting Council’s Audit Inspection Unit (AIU) shows that the controversial practice of selling non-audit services to audit clients is alive and well, threatening the independence of audits. At Deloitte audit directors and managers are […]
Read MoreCalPERS and 20 other public pension plans have written to key US lawmakers urging them to keep corporate governance provisions in the final version of a proposed financial regulations reform bill. The US House of Representatives and Senate have each passed versions of reform legislation and now must now merge the two bills. Both measures include […]
Read MoreThe SEC has confirmed that it will be issuing a green paper on proxy reform later this year. Speaking at a Business Roundtable quarterly meeting last week, SEC Chairman, Mary Schapiro said: “the mechanics of the proxy process have not kept pace with current market conditions or trading practices. For this reason, the Commission will soon […]
Read MoreRailPen would very much like to know what their fund managers are doing to address this key sustainability issue. And to help them with their review, they have worked with HSBC and Linklaters to develop a 77 question Risk Audit covering a four broad topics: legal, investment strategy, client demand issues and asset categories. The […]
Read MoreThe Institutional Investor Council (IIC), the successor body to the Institutional Shareholders’ Committee (ISC), has started to lay out its stall on possible work programmes. Speaking at the IMA’s annual dinner in the City of London this week, Douglas Ferrans, IMA chairman, outlined his vision of how the IIC would tackle the “endlessly complex” conflicts of […]
Read MoreConference key note speeches came thick and fast at the ICGN’s London conference at the Guildhall this week. The three leading actors in the UK’s governance reform, Sir David Walker, Lord Myners and Sir Christopher Hogg each presented their individual perspectives to a global audience keen to hear what the UK has to offer the […]
Read MorePeter Dey, the architect of Canada’s first corporate governance guidelines for boards, is convinced that the power of directors has been eroded on that balance of power has shifted too far to shareholders on key issues. Dey’s remarks were made in a speech at the ICGN annual conference this week after he received the Lifetime Achiever Award in recognition […]
Read MoreThe ASX Corporate Governance Council has released a communiqué on its recent work programme and it proposal to make changes to the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (‘the ASX Code’) with an expected implementation date from 1 July 2010. Following the publication of the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee (CAMAC) earlier in 2009 of […]
Read MoreRemuneration reports are “unduly complex, place a significant burden on companies and are of limited use to shareholders and other readers. At worst, they have become almost incomprehensible to even expert readers and can give a distorted picture of executive remuneration.” So says the Australian Institute of Company Directors (ACID). Instead ACID wants the reports to be […]
Read More