ShareSoc News

The Law Commission begins review of intermediated securities system

Press release 110 - The Law Commission begins review of intermediated securities system UKSA-ShareSoc welcome the commencement of the Law Commission review of the intermediated securities system. Share Soc Director Cliff Weight said "12 million UK investors should be pleased that this review will look at reforms needed to ensure legal redress is available when needed. They will also be pleased that the law regarding the rights and protections of investors will be reviewed. This will help ensure better transparency for investors and accountability ...

UKSA-ShareSoc joint response to Brydon Review of Audit

UKSA-ShareSoc submitted a joint response to the Brydon REVIEW INTO THE QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF AUDIT  We said a fresh approach was needed. Many of the questions in the Review overtly or implicitly prompt debate about how the external audit can be made more robust and more relevant in future. Underlying this is a requirement to find ways of making auditors more accountable to those they are meant to be serving – namely the shareholders. Our view is that this cannot be achieved ...

Response to BEIS on the FRC Kingman proposals

In a detailed joint ShareSoc-UKSA 12-page Response to BEIS on the FRC Kingman proposals, we said we support the general thrust of the Kingman proposals. Kingman is proposing a new authority to replace the FRC. We also made some more general points: Sound financial reporting is a basic prerequisite for good stewardship. However, no matter how good the financial reporting is, if a significant proportion of investors are disenfranchised and unable to make their voice heard, many of the benefits of better financial reporting will ...

ShareSoc and UKSA make joint response to FCA/FRC Consultation on Effective Stewardship

In January 2019, the FCA and FRC  issued a joint discussion  paper DP19/1 Building a regulatory framework for effective stewardship. On 15 April 2019, we made a joint response from UKSA and ShareSoc on behalf of individual investors. In our response we make the following key points: Investor stewardship must not let boards off the hook for their own stewardship. The Stewardship Code should be renamed the Investor Stewardship Code to better reflect what investors do and to better acknowledge the role of ...

RBS Shareholder Committee Campaign: Update 15

RBS Shareholder Committee Campaign: Update 15 - Resolution has been accepted and is on the AGM agenda The Shareholders Circular and notice of the AGM was sent out on 18 March to all shareholders on the register, along with a copy of the annual report (only 267 pages this year), headed “Building a simple, safe and more customer-focused bank”. You only get a paper copy of the annual report if you asked for it. Those people who have invested in RBS shares via ...

FRC Reporting Lab survey of investors views of the topics they should review

Dear Member,  The FRC is doing a survey of investors views of the topics that the Reporting Lab should look at over the next few years. The link to the survey is: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/labsurvey11/ Please do respond if you can; it should only take about 5  minutes to complete (I just did it and it took me 7 minutes but I wrote lots of comments). The FRC runs an excellent investor engagement programme of which the Reporting Lab forms an important part. The FRC is very ...

RBS Executive Pensions row as Board fails again to listen to its shareholders

Press release 109 - RBS Executive Pensions row as Board fails again to listen to its shareholders RBS has again failed to engage effectively with its shareholders, this time over Executive Pensions. As a result, the company finds itself yet again in the headlines, for the wrong reasons. RBS Shareholders’ concerns about lack of effective engagement are vindicated by yet another escalating row. ShareSoc and UKSA have requisitioned a resolution at the April 25th AGM to establish a Shareholder Committee, with the ...

FCA Consultation on proposals to improve shareholder engagement

In January the FCA issued a consultation paper CP19/7 Financial Conduct Authority Consultation on proposals to improve shareholder engagement. This was a technical consultation on how to implement the EU Shareholder Rights Directive II in relation to its Stewardship aspects. Today 27 March UKSA and ShareSoc made a joint response, on behalf of individual investors. We made a number of points, see below, with further background in an Appendix. We think this is important context to our response to the FCA consultation as ...

Proposed Revision to the UK Stewardship Code 2019

ShareSoc has made a joint response with UKSA  on behalf of individual investors to the consultation from the FRC on the revised Stewardship Code. We believe that the proposed revisions to the Stewardship Code are a sound attempt to make the Code more meaningful and to give it teeth. However, we have concerns that in some areas the Code is seeking to set expectations on which it will be very difficult to deliver and which could ultimately result in the Code becoming ...

ShareSoc and UKSA’s joint response to the FCA Consultation on proposals to improve shareholder engagement

ShareSoc and UKSA’s joint response to the FCA Consultation on proposals to improve shareholder engagement is available here.