Hot Issues Archives

US financial reform horse trading hits investors

As elected representatives in the US enter the final stages of merging the two competing financial services reform bills, investors are becoming increasingly anxious that their key reform proposal, access to the proxy, will be rendered useless.

From the outset, …

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What can the Maori meaning of governance teach us?

As Western economies tie themselves in knots trying to protect financial markets from future harm and arguing about what role governance plays in that process, commentators have been struggling to define governance and who should be responsible for it. We …

Wyser-Pratte challenges outcome of Lagardère AGM

The activist shareholder Guy Wyser-Pratte has challenged the outcome of the AGM of Lagardère, held on 27 April, and requested the French market regulator, the AMF, to verify the procedures for the transmission of the votes submitted to the meeting.…

Combined Code consultation responses now available

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published the responses to its recent consultation on the UK’s corporate governance code. A total of 117 responses have been made available, of which 37 are from quoted companies directly and 14 from investors …

The Reg FD Shareholder Dialogue Myth – Busted

As Prudential has recently found to its cost, it’s generally worth while keeping shareholders in the loop. Whereas UK and European companies are generally welcoming of investor dialogue to the extent it is enshrined in national governance codes, any meaningful …

US pension funds fight to keep proxy reforms on the table

CalPERS 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 …

FSA acts on asset segregation – hope yet for investors?

Yesterday’s news that JP Morgan has been hit with the largest fine ever handed down by the FSA might not appear to have any direct connection to shareholder stewardship, after all it wasn’t their securities servicing division found to be …

Budget: Mandatory vote disclosure? Who will take hold of the wheel?

Coming so late in the life of the current parliamentary term, the City may be forgiven for already turning attention from yesterday’s budget statement to post-election budgetary announcements for substantive financial and fiscal policy developments. However, hidden in the text …

New governance standards for UK companies split investors

New governance standards for UK-listed companies looks set to split investors over the FRC’s proposals that the 350 largest companies should propose all their directors for annual election.

The UK Corporate Governance Code, formerly known as the Combined Code, sets …