European Commission Archives | Minerva-Manifest

EU-wide task force appointed as NFRD reform gathers pace

The European Commission has officially mandated the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) to provide recommendations for updating non-financial reporting standards. In an open letter, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis issued a request for technical advice to EFRAG following the conclusion of a recent consultation for revising the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). This […]

25% gender quota introduced for Greek companies

Greek companies will soon be mandated to meet a 25% female quota on their boards following a landmark decision for gender diversity. The quota requirement has been included as an amendment to the bill transposing the EU Shareholder Rights Directive II (SRD II) into Greek law, and is the result of a consultation led by […]

French regulator demands broader scope for non-financial reporting

French regulator demands broader scope for non-financial reporting The French securities regulator, AMF, has asked the European Commission to make all companies, irrespective of size, disclose harmonised ESG data under the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive. The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), explaining its reasoning in a response to the commission’s call for feedback on the […]

European Commission pushes ahead with SRD II

European Commission pushes ahead with SRD II The European Commission will proceed with the implementation of the second Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II), defying protests from some post-trade groups. As a result, the second phase of SRD II will come into force on 3 September 2020, as originally scheduled. The first phase of implementation saw […]

Have regulators been deceived on green benchmarks?

Have regulators been deceived on green benchmarks? New European regulations on green benchmarks have been thrown into the spotlight this week, amid allegations they favour the interests of a handful of ESG data providers rather than supporting “genuine sustainability”. The European Commission’s proposals to develop benchmarks for low-carbon investment strategies have been dubbed “flawed and […]

Manifest Publishes Global Regulatory Review

Manifest has this week published a Global Regulatory Review, keeping customers abreast of the latest developments in corporate governance and related disciplines around the world. Global capital markets and investors expectations towards them have changed radically over the past 20 years. Sir Adrian Cadbury could probably never have guessed what his dryly-titled “Report of the […]

Share owners should give a XXXX says EU

“Don’t be British, be Australian” is the message from Claire Bury, the EU’s corporate governance official. Speaking at the UK’s National Associate of Pension Funds investment conference in Edinburgh recently, Claire outlined the Commission’s approach to the forthcoming Governance Green Paper which will be launched in April. Not exactly the best timing in the world for […]

All our Christmases come at once?

The European Commission this week published a summary of the responses to its Green Paper on Corporate Governance in Financial Institutions. The paper revealed some not so surprising results when it comes to views about the role of institutional investors: many want to see mandatory disclosure of voting policies and records; there’s a widespread desire […]

EU warns on board diversity

The threat of quotas to improve board diversity moved a step closer last week with EU Fundamental Rights Commissioner Viviane Reding telling the European parliament: “Equality in decision-making is not yet a fact … I do not rule out the possibility of putting forward legislation in this area.” Speaking to the Guardian newspaper her spokesman , […]

Brussels turns attention to unfair ‘tying’ practices in Financial Services

With shareholder engagement moving ever higher up the (potentially) regulatory and market best practice agenda, voting is likewise coming under the spotlight. In recent days, we have seen the unexpected result of the Infineon AGM provoke concerns about ‘irregularities in the voting process’. Manifest’s own investor conference in Paris in September 2009 demonstrated the importance to investors […]