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.

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ShareSoc+UKSA demand firmer, faster action from the FCA in our joint response to Duty of Care consultation

In a considered joint response, the UK Shareholders Association and ShareSoc, said firmer and faster, transparent action against those who violate the integrity of the FCA standards, rules and guidance is needed. In practically every financial scandal or financial crisis, the FCA seems to have taken far too long to decide whether companies/firms/individuals have a case to answer and too often has concluded that nothing has gone seriously wrong. If this fundamental issue is not addressed, then no amount of debate ...

31st August 2018

Shareholder rights, letters to MPs and questions at AGMs – An Update

Post Date: August 17, 2018

Over 20 members have to my knowledge written to their MPs (as we requested) and a number of members have asked questions at AGMs. We have certainly raised the issue. The Minister (or most likely his civil servants) have produced what looks like a standard response which is being sent to those MPs who contacted Greg Clarke MP, the Secretary of State. Their response argues that the UK does not have to follow the intent of the EU Shareholder Rights Directive and ...

ShareSoc and UKSA respond to the Independent Review of the FRC (Kingman Review)

Post Date: August 12, 2018

ShareSoc and UKSA respond to the Independent Review of the FRC (Kingman Review). See our joint press release

Firmer, faster, more transparent action needed by FRC, we tell Kingman

Post Date: August 12, 2018

UKSA and ShareSoc responded jointly to Sir John Kingman’s review of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). We summarised our assessment of the FRC’s current strengths and weaknesses and made suggestions for addressing the weaknesses. The main points we made were: Our main desired outcome is firmer and faster action against those who violate the integrity of reporting standards. It seems to us (and to the general public) that in practically every financial scandal or financial crisis, the FRC seems to have taken ...

Clarification re Stock Lending and platform pooled nominee accounts

Post Date: August 10, 2018

Kevin Taylor, a ShareSoc member, has pointed out to me in relation to my article page 12 of ShareSoc’s August newsletter, that stock-lending simply does not (should not under FCA rules) take place from standard pooled nominee accounts, the likes of which most retail investors would use. The FCA’s rules could not be more explicit in this area: “A firm must not undertake or otherwise engage in stock lending activity with or for a customer unless … the firm has obtained the consent ...

Beaufort Client Campaign: Update 4

Post Date: August 10, 2018

Following much hard work by the creditors' committee, PwC has now drafted an official distribution plan, in line with our previously stated understanding. Full details of the plan can be found here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/business-recovery/administrations/beaufort/distributions.html It was approved by the creditors' committee on 13th July and by the Court on 26th July. I attended the court hearing - more on that later. It is anticipated that the vast majority of client assets will be transferred to another broker in September, without loss or costs payable by ...

Dowd Report On Cost Of Guarantees Linked To Equity Release Mortgages

Post Date: August 7, 2018

Press Release 105 - Joint Press Release from UKSA and ShareSoc on behalf of individual investors Dowd Report On Cost Of Guarantees Linked To Equity Release Mortgages UKSA-ShareSoc welcome the publication of Professor Kevin Dowd's report on the valuation of embedded guarantees in equity release mortgages, which raises troubling questions about the quality and transparency of corporate reporting. It also raises concerns about the opaque relationship between regulators and regulated firms. Equity release mortgages allow people over the age of 55 to borrow a proportion of ...

8pm Tuesday, 7 August, the BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘The Equity Release Trap’.

Post Date: August 6, 2018

Make a date in your diary for 8pm Tuesday, 7 August, for the BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘The Equity Release Trap’. The documentary investigates the claims of Professor Kevin Dowd, professor of finance and economics at the University of Durham, that the equity release sector has been seriously under-valuing embedded guarantees, and that the regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority, has only made half-hearted attempts to address these under-valuations while permitting them anyway. The implications for some of the firms involved could ...

Premier Foods, stock lending, custodians, shareholder rights and nominee accounts

Post Date: July 25, 2018

The background to my comments is below: KATE BURGESS in the FT on 15 July 2018 reported that accusations of empty voting — where investors borrow voting shares for short periods to swing the outcome at meetings —reverberated around the market ahead of Premier Food’s shareholder meeting next week. They were sparked when Oasis Management , the Hong Kong activist hoping to unseat Premier’s chief executive Gavin Darby, said it had increased its stake in the owner of Angel Delight from 9 to ...

Royal Mail Remuneration

Post Date: July 25, 2018

I always thought that being a Chief Executive and being paid millions was a 24/7 job. I am amazed the Royal Mail could not recruit somebody from the millions of people who live in the UK. I am very angry that the details of Mr Back's £5.8million payout were buried in note 26 on page 144 of the company's annual report and not explained in the first paragraph of the Remuneration Committee Chair's statement. Hiding the pay of the new Chief ...

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