ShareSoc Blog
The ShareSoc blog provides news and informal commentary from directors, members and other contributors. Entries reflect the personal views of the authors, which do not necessarily reflect ShareSoc’s formal position. Contributors may hold shares in the companies mentioned. Nothing in this blog should be viewed as financial advice. You may submit comments on blog posts, but ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit inappropriate or defamatory submissions.
There is more news given in the News page of our web site and more analysis of news is provided in our monthly newsletter for members – see the Newsletters page.
If you would like to be notified about new posts to our blog you can opt-in to our Weekly Wrap-Up Email service. If you are a member of ShareSoc select the “Weekly Wrap-Up Email” option here. If you are not a member select the “Information and Education Services” option here.
This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
This is the first post from a new contributor to ShareSoc’s blog: “The Secret Auditor”. We hope that we can coax them to contribute more of their wisdom in the future.
Why Problems With Audits Arise Repeatedly
The fundamental problem of audit quality remains, the work is carried out by bright individuals fresh from university, they haven't been in industry for decades and seen what goes on, they haven't had ...
This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
Farage Fiasco forces CEO’s resignation; governance concerns at NatWest
Dame Alison Rose stood down in July over the closure of Nigel Farage’s account by Coutts & Co, and more specifically over her indiscrete communications with the BBC on the matter.
Alison Rose clearly made a huge blunder in chatting to Simon Jack, the BBC news editor, about a customer’s personal financial information. I’m sure she will kick herself until the ...
Just over a year ago, the ShareSoc team was saddened to learn of the passing of our staunch supporter, Steve Holdsworth.
We were recently overwhelmed to learn that Steve’s support continued after his passing and want to express our immense gratitude to Steve’s family for the generous legacy that ShareSoc received. It will help us to develop ShareSoc and move forward with our campaigns and services for our members.
Our members’ financial support is essential for ShareSoc to be able to fulfil its ...
ShareSoc and UKSA have responded to the FCA’s consultation on financial promotions via social media.
We express concern that less experienced investors are vulnerable to simplistic and potentially misleading messages published via social media, which may tempt them into unsuitable, high-risk, investments. We therefore propose stricter regulation of social media messaging that may encourage inappropriate investment.
Mark Bentley, Director, ShareSoc
SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new Beginners’ Group, for those in the early stages of their investing career.
The Conveners for the Beginners’ Group will be Paul Fisher and John Calvert, of the Signet Leeds Originals and Leeds Veritas Groups. Both have been SIGnet members and keen investors for many years. Bill Fawkner-Corbett, Head of SIGnet and a member of the Central London, Leeds Originals and US Groups, who has been investing (on and off) for 50 years, ...
In this article we highlighted the significance of the interim report issued by Sir Douglas Flint on behalf of the Digitisation Taskforce (DT) and our concerns about it.
After careful deliberation, ShareSoc and UKSA have now submitted this response to Sir Douglas. Special thanks are due to Mohammed Amin, who co-ordinated our joint response.
We express concern that the proposals in the interim report do not fulfil the DT’s terms of reference. In particular, they do not ensure that the rights of current ...
The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
Salutary Lessons for Directors and Shareholders of Trusts Investing in Alternative Assets
Usually, the role of non-executive director at an investment trust is a bit of a sinecure. Most investment trusts invest in stocks and bonds. Their portfolios are easy to value and there is little scope for misdeeds. Most such trusts publish their NAVs daily. The principal role for NEDs of such trusts is to ...
This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
A thematic summary of a recent event hosted by New Financial
Retail participation in equity markets
Investing in public equity markets can be a great way for individuals to improve their long-term financial security. It can also help to democratize wealth creation, connect issuers to their owners, and connect the financial services industry with the people it exists to serve.
However, retail engagement in equity markets and retail investment has fallen ...
Our online forums offer the capability of posting formatted content. However, it is not very clear how to format posts and how to include links and images.
We have now produced this video which shows users of our forums how to use the formatting tools that are available.
We hope that our members find this helpful. You need to be logged in to our website to make full use of our forums, which enable online discussions and posting of useful information and/or questions ...
Background
ShareSoc’s Shareholder Rights Campaign has been one of our longest running and most important campaigns. The reason it is so important is that current deficiencies in the rights of beneficial shareholders severely hamper our ability, and that of shareholder action groups generally, to hold company managements to account. This impacts the effectiveness of many of our other campaigns. Visit the campaign page for further details and further explanation of the issues.
Since we launched the campaign in 2014, we have made considerable ...
