Lifting the lid on the FRC – An Event for Retail Shareholders

ShareSoc has organised a special event for its members, in conjunction with the Financial Reporting Council (the FRC), to take place on 21st November 2017, 2pm -5pm.

The FRC’s role is crucial to preserving your wealth. It is the organisation responsible for overseeing the quality of audit work carried out by an auditor. As such, it plays a crucial role in helping to protect your wealth. This is a unique opportunity, for UKSA and ShareSoc members only, for a direct dialogue with the FRC. The FRC, for their part, are keen to hear the views of serious individual investors.

This event, “Lifting the lid on the FRC – An Event for Retail Shareholders”, will be of interest to all active investors, not just retired accountants and actuaries. It will give you the chance to give your views on areas where change is needed and to interact with senior members of the FRC. It will be led by Tracy Vegro, Executive Director of Strategy at the FRC. Topics to be covered include:

• The structure and remit of the FRC;
• Improving standards of corporate reporting for investors;
• Maintaining audit standards – audit reviews, standards setting and enforcement;
• Stewardship and governance – holding directors, companies and auditors to account;
• Changes and trends in auditing.

This event is for UKSA/ShareSoc members only. Delegates who are not already members of ShareSoc will be granted free associate membership.

Numbers are limited to 25  – BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW! Make you booking here, where you will also find further details of this event: https://www.sharesoc.org/events/lifting-lid-frc-event-retail-shareholders/

Further Background about the FRC

The Financial Reporting Council (www.frc.org.uk) is the UK’s independent regulator responsible for promoting high-quality corporate governance and reporting to foster investment. They promote high standards of corporate governance through the UK Corporate Governance Code and encourage engagement between investors and Boards through the Stewardship Code. They set standards for corporate reporting, audit and actuarial practice and monitor and enforce accounting and auditing standards. They also oversee the regulatory activities of the actuarial profession and the professional accountancy bodies and operate independent enforcement arrangements for public interest cases involving accountants and actuaries.

It is not unreasonable to suppose that the important work done by the FRC is not fully appreciated – or even understood – by everyone – let alone the business community.  But we all rely on the written word in making our financial decisions. The FRC and the work that it does has an impact, directly or indirectly on all of us. This is why you should join us at this event at the FRC!

At the heart of any successful enterprise lies money. The input is investment and the output is profit, however defined. Information about all of this needs to be accurate, timely, consistent and understandable – and it needs to be enough – but not too much – and those responsible for preparing and delivering it need to be accountable – and brought to account where necessary!

The FRC’s annual Open Meeting took place a couple of weeks ago  – and what their Chairman, Sir Win Bishoff and CEO Stephen Hadrill had to say about their work is both illuminating and also very relevant to Corporate Governance in the UK.  You can read about this here – https://www.frc.org.uk/news/september-2017/speech-by-sir-win-bischoff-frc-annual-open-meeti

Here’s an extract from what they said around their Mission – which is – Our mission is to promote transparency and integrity in business. And forefront, here, are its plans to adapt UK corporate governance and to make it match-fit for Britain’s future as the obvious and natural place to do business in the world.

• Over the past year, we have seen an unprecedented wave of political change in the UK and globally
• High-quality corporate governance contributes to long-term company performance.
• The UK has excellent standards of corporate governance, which makes the UK equity market attractive to new investment.
• Successful companies support society by creating jobs, driving economic growth and helping the UK to prosper.
•  The FRC works in the public interest to ensure a strong flow of investment into UK companies so they can grow and support society.
• We encourage well-run companies and high-quality work by auditors, accountants and actuaries. This builds trust among investors around the world.
• We constantly monitor the quality of audits and company reports, and we act when we see misconduct or breaches of regulations.
• Brexit adds urgency to all this.  The UK’s departure from the EU has other implications for our work too.
• The accountancy and actuarial professions in the UK are held in generally high regard around the world.