Law Commission Review

Retail Shareholder Participation in Voting – US study

Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director reviews Retail Shareholder Participation in the Proxy Process: Monitoring, Engagement, and Voting: Working Paper N° 637/2019 November 2019: By Alon Brav, Matthew D. Cain, Jonathon Zytnick This...

ShareSoc-UKSA Response: Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities – Call for Evidence

ShareSoc-UKSA submitted a joint response on behalf of individual investors, on 5 Nov 2019. The key points we made were: Communication by email rather than by post is now the norm and assumed as the default position. Printing annual reports and shareholder circulars and sending them to shareholders by post is no longer necessary. Postage and printing costs were some of the key drivers of the nominee system. A modern system of intermediated securities should embrace and recognise modern technology and ensure ...

Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities Consultation

I am writing to ask you to make a personal submission to The Law Commission Call for Evidence on the subject of dematerialisation, intermediated securities, shareholder rights and nominees/platforms. This is the most important issue that ShareSoc-UKSA campaigns on. Your response must be done by 5 November and submitted to By email to int-sec@lawcommission.gov.uk. Commercial and Common Law Team, Law Commission, 1st Floor, Tower, 52 Queen’s Anne Gate, London, SW1H 9AG. I attach a copy of the official ShareSoc-UKSA  response, which runs to 38 pages. A personal ...

Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities Consultation

I am writing to ask you to: Send me examples and evidence we can use in our submission; Consider making a personal submission yourself; and to Update you on this important issue. Submissions to The Law Commission Call for Evidence on the subject of dematerialisation, intermediated securities, shareholder rights and nominees/platforms must be made by 5 November. The Law Commission “scoping” study will provide an accessible account of the law. It will also identify the corporate governance and other legal issues associated with ...

Shareholder Rights Being Eroded

There is a good article in the Financial Times today (Saturday 22/6/2019) which is headlined “UK shareholder rights being eroded”. As the article says, almost no investors who buy shares legally own the shares they have bought, which rather surprises them. That’s because most of them buy via nominee accounts operated by stockbrokers and platforms. Not only that, but most nominee accounts are “pooled” accounts so even identifying who are the “beneficial owners” is not always easy. Does it matter? Yes it ...