Hot Issues Archives

Financial Market Reform: US investors have their say

The Investors Working Group, a bi-partisan panel of experts created in February 2009 by the Council of Institutional Investors and the CFA Institute Centre for Financial Market Integrity, has released its recommendations for reform and modernisation of the US financial …

SEC reform proposals: Disclosure & Proxy Access

Not to be outdone by the Walker Review this week, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) has released the full text proposals from their July 1^st meeting which are aimed at enhancing pre- and post-meeting disclosure …

Walker Principles to go global?

The UK Government and Treasury has, perhaps not entirely surprisingly, warmly welcomed Sir David Walker’s proposals for the reform of the corporate governance of UK banks. At the same time, Lord Myners, the Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury has …

Asian voting is a missed opportunity

Voting levels at Asian companies are cause for concern concludes the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA). Talking to the Financial Times earlier this week, Jamie Allen, secretary general of ACGA has said that lack of investor involvement means that voting …

Sir David Walker’s 39 Steps

Sir David Walker’s review of the governance of UK banks, commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has published 39 recommendations aimed at improving the governance of banks and other big financial institutions (BOFIs). The aim of the report was to …

Separate Company Secretary role vital for good governance

As much as the combination of a chair and CEO role provokes concerns amongst investors, at an operational level Manifest has had concerns over the combination of the roles of Company Secretary and Finance Director for some years now. Firstly …

UK Government implements Shareholders’ Rights Directive

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has this week announced The Companies (Shareholders’ Rights) Regulations 2009 (to come into force on August 3rd), signalling completion of the final legislative stage of the European Shareholders’ Rights Directive. The Directive …

SEC approves broker voting reforms, promises to look at the plumbing

In a widely anticipated move, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has moved forward with an aggressive reform program to update the US proxy system. The SEC met today (01/07/09) to approve the New York Stock Exchange’s proposal regarding broker …

CEOs Don’t Fear the Reaper….

“He who dies with the most toys still dies” was a quote on the No Fear brand of T-shirts a few years ago. Funnily enough that saying came to mind when news of Amalgamated Bank’s shareholder proposals against “Golden Coffins” …

‘Unexpected reaction’ forces M&S climbdown

Today’s climbdown by Marks & Spencer, courtesy of the decision of Steve Sharp and Stuart Rose to waive part of their Performance Share Plan awards, represents a victory for shareholders. However, the root cause of the problem – an over-generous …