The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published proposals to extend the senior managers and certification regime (SM&CR) across most regulated firms replacing the existing approved persons regime. This follows a government announcement in October 2015 that it wished to extend the SM&CR to all sectors of the financial services industry. The FCA said that the aim […]
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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a consultation on proposals to create a new category within its premium listing regime to cater for companies controlled by a shareholder that is a sovereign country. Last February the FCA launched a discussion paper ‘Review of the Effectiveness of Primary Markets’. The paper examined the role of […]
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Trade union bodies, the TUC and the GMB, commented that they would have liked more radical proposals from Matthew Taylor and his team in his Good Work report reviewing modern employment practices that were published last week. The Taylor review outlines seven steps which it believes will provide progress towards fair and decent work for people as […]
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The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of US institutional investors that engage companies on the environmental and social impacts of their operations, has urged US Senators not to pass the Financial CHOICE Act. The ICCR sent a letter to all Senators explaining why investors oppose the proposed law which was passed by the House of […]
Read MoreThe independent shareholders of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, overwhelmingly supported a shareholder resolution asking company management to recapitalise the share structure so that each share has one vote at its recent AGM (7th June). The resolution was put forward by NorthStar Asset Management, corporate governance activist and author James McRitchie, and activist investor John Chevedden […]
Read MoreThe UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a series of changes to improve the governance of fund managers, to strengthen their duty to act in the best interests of investors and to use its senior managers regime to bring individual focus and accountability to this duty in its final report of its asset management industry study . The […]
Read MoreThe UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged the banking group Barclays and four former executives with conspiracy to commit fraud and unlawful financial assistance given to the Qatar government when it provided funding during the 2008 financial crisis. This is the first time a bank in the UK has been charged with any offences relating […]
Read MoreThe water sector regulator, Ofwat, has fined Thames Water the maximum automatic penalty it can of £8.55m for admitting in this year’s report and accounts that it will miss its leakage reduction targets for the first time 11 years. Ofwat said the penalty is borne by the company alone and cannot be passed on to customers. The […]
Read MoreThe US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Financial CHOICE Act despite strong lobbying against the legislation by institutional investors. The bill will now move to the Senate where its expected to face tough opposition. The Council of Institutional Investors (CII), which has led the fight against the bill championed by Jeb Hensarling, chair […]
Read MoreUkraine has adopted a long-awaited law which will improve the corporate governance of its joint stock companies (JSC) as well as the shareholder rights. Legal experts said that the changes will boost the prospects of foreign investment in Ukrainian companies as it will bring its corporate law more in line with the rest of Europe. The law became effective on […]
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