The EU has taken another step forward in its financial services reform agenda and launched a consultation on the harmonisation of the legal framework surrounding securities transactions and share holding functions. European finance and economy ministers (ECOFIN) have asked the European Commission to put forward legislative proposals to increase legal certainty and efficiency of securities holdings and […]
Read MoreBelgium has announced an update to its 2004 comply or explain corporate governance code. The new code attempts to deal with some of the issues flagged up by the current economic crisis with a particular emphasis on say on pay disclosures. The proposals include publishing a remuneration policy, detailed information for the earnings of each executive director […]
Read MoreAhead of the Rio Tinto AGMs, Manifest flagged up its concerns regarding the re-election of Sir Roderick Eddington in our meeting business report. Manifest’s US partners, Proxy Governance, issued an ‘against’ recommendation on his re-election. The results of the voting the AGMs in London and Sydney have now been released. Each of the director election […]
Read MoreThe Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) is urging shareholders to take advantage of the upcoming AGM season to assert their rights and to “not wait until they have been trampled on”. PSE director and co-chair of the recently established corporate governance committe, Jose Luis Javier, said: “The current global financial crisis has put the spotlight on […]
Read MoreThe Conference Board Governance Center has got together with Damien Park of Hedge Fund Solutions to produce guidance and a checklist of issues for boards to consider in their relations with shareholders. In particular the report is focused on how to avoid “costly and disruptive confrontations” with activist funds. The report argues that boards are well served by taking a proactively […]
Read MoreVoting at Finnish companies is set to get a whole lot easier following an announcement from the Finnish government which will see Finnish company law brought into line with the EU Shareholder Rights Directive. Now that the contents of the Bill have been decided and presented to parliament, the aim is to bring the amendments […]
Read MoreBouygues, a constituent of the French blue-chip index, the CAC 40, is looking for shareholder approval for three potentially contentious proposals at the forthcoming AGM on 23 April. The most contentious proposal is Resolution 24, seeking an authorisation to issue ‘bons breton’ warrants. Legislation passed in France in 2006 allows directors, with shareholder approval, to […]
Read MoreUS Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s recently announced proposals for US recovery have attracted extreme criticism in many quarters for failing to address the issue of Fair Value Accounting. Alex Pollock of the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute and a long-standing critic of mark-to-market accounting rules sees a missed opportunity for a more radical overhaul, as outlined in a recent […]
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