Five of Ohio’s public pension funds have joined California in pursuit of recompense from the three dominant credit ratings agencies (CRAs), Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. Ohio’s Attorney General, Richard Cordray estimates that the five funds involved in the case lost more than $457 million from investing in triple-A rated in mortgaged backed securities. In […]
Read MoreUS pay czar Kenneth Feinberg has waded into the bankers’ bonus debate with a range of sweeping cuts and demands for corporate governance reforms. On the pay front the proposals are to cut the packages of the top 25 executives at the seven bailed out firms: Bank of America, Citigroup, AIG, General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler […]
Read MoreThe government investigator charged with examining the collapse of the three Icelandic banks, Ólafur Þór Hauksson, has confirmed that 22 policemen and six French and Norwegian accountants have raided the offices of KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Reykjavik, seizing documents and computer data as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity. Although the targets are the […]
Read MoreThe European Commission has recently announced it intends to initiate processes for taking action against EU Member States over implementation of the Shareholders Rights Directive (SRD). The Directive, which was passed in 2007, establishes Europe-wide principles for ensuring certain basic rights of shareholders at European listed companies. These rights relate to improved registration, participation and information rights […]
Read MoreThe California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has signalled a move into more direct activism after a vote this week (Monday) to remove a cap on the number of shareholder proposals it can issue. Until now, the $200 billion fund was limited was limited to 20 proposals related to executive compensation and 10 related to corporate governance […]
Read MoreWhen is an abstention not an abstention? A possible party-time trivia question for lawyers maybe, but a question with real consequences for shareholders which highlights yet again the importance of ensuring local knowledge is applied to voting decisions. Most company law regimes have special provisions for dealing with ‘qualified majority’ issues. They may differ one from another […]
Read MoreThe UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has warned against companies signing up for “bundled audits” pending completion of a review into the ethical questions surrounding their use. As we reported in August, the downturn has encouraged the development of a new type of audit which blends internal and external audit. Rentokil claims to have achieved a […]
Read MoreAustralia is proposing some innovative steps to address concerns about executive pay. This week, the Productivity Commission released a detailed discussion document outlining a series of reforms which it hopes will improve board accountability, remove conflicts of interest and enhance shareholder engagement on remuneration. While the Commission doesn’t consider that Australia is suffering from a systemic failure in […]
Read MoreIntesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s biggest retail lender and the by-product of the takeover of Sanpaolo IMI by Banca Intesa is an excellent case study of a) how not to construct a post-merger board and b) how not to engage with shareholders and c) why EU shareholder reforms can’t come too quickly. The bank operates what can only […]
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