Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update 04 April 2022

Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update 4 April 2022

Since our last update in November 2021 (see page 16 here), we have worked on:

1. Consultation responses and government lobbying
2. Woodford Campaign
3. Voting Guidance and Shareholder Engagement
4. Shareholder Rights/Nominees
5. SVS/ITI
6. FCA liaison
7. FRC, BEIS, etc liaison
8. Campaigns
9. AIM regulation

1. Consultation responses and government lobbying. This continues to be a major area of work, where ShareSoc represents the interests of individual investors. We have submitted responses to:

FRC Endorsement Board – Draft Endorsement Criteria Assessment: IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts
FCA Consultation CP21/36: A New Consumer Duty
• Treasury: Enabling investment in productive finance – Consultation Response
Secondary Markets fund raising review: We have met HM Treasury to put forward our views. We are hopeful the €8 million limit will be removed and individual investors will gain access to all placings on fair terms.

We are currently working on

• FCA’s policy statement ‘PRIIPs – Scope Rules and amendments to Regulatory Technical Standards’ (PS22/2)
• ISSB ED of climate related disclosures standard – consultation closing 29/7/22. For more info see:
IFRS – Exposure Draft and comment letters: Climate-related Disclosures
IFRS – Exposure Draft and comment letters: General Sustainability-related Disclosures
• Taxation Policy. We responded last year to consultations on stamp duty, inheritance tax and capital gains tax. A recent article in the Mail highlighted concerns and we are evaluating what ShareSoc should do. Please contact us at info@sharesoc.org if you wish to join in this debate.

2. Woodford Campaign: The Woodford debacle has cost investors £1 billion of losses and is currently our most important area of campaigning activity. Leigh Day will shortly be submitted their particulars of claim, which is the next key milestone in the legal process. ShareSoc is planning a free webinar “Woodford – Real Progress” to update everyone on the latest progress on the claim, and news about regulation, retribution and redress. Please reserve the date – 28 June, 6pm.
3. Voting Guidance and Shareholder Engagement: We continue to test our new ideas with a pilot study of FTSE30 companies. This is a major exercise and reports have been published for c20 companies.
See https://www.sharesoc.org/category/vci/ for more info.
4. Shareholder Rights/Nominees: There are signs of progress following the Law Commission report. We maintain close contact with BEIS to put forward our views.
5. SVS/ITI: we continue to provide a Support Group to help those who assets were with SVS which went into administration and were transferred to ITI. We are pleased to report that the problems experienced by support group members finally seem to have been resolved.
6. FCA: We continue to liaise positively with the FCA over numerous issues that we think are important to individual investors and ensure that the FCA give due regard to the views of individual investors. We met with FCA Chair Charles Randell to discuss financial education.
7. FRC, BEIS, etc.: We also meet regularly with FRC, BEIS and other key influencers to present to them the views of individual investors.
8. Campaigns: We have now finished and closed our campaigns for Redcentric and Bacanora.
9. AIM regulation: AIM is regulated by the LSE itself. We remain very concerned about what are, in our opinion, inappropriate and irregular (more than just questionable) practices, that may occur in some AIM companies from time to time. We frequently report such cases to the FCA and LSE/AIM. Please alert us if you are concerned about malpractice.

Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc
8 April 2022

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