UKSA is delighted to appear in a recent piece in The Scotsman, from Bill Jamieson, titled: Size matters ... in so many intriguing ways. Bill was recently guest speaker of the Scottish regional branch of UKSA in Edinburgh and had this to say of our organisation:
The Auditing Practices Board (APB) of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is calling for more professional scepticism in the conduct of company audits. This reflects repeated representations made to the FRC by UKSA, most strongly in a written submission 12 months ago criticising the way in which the regulator had previously described the auditor's role. Its new stance is very much to be welcomed and is likely to be applauded by all private investors.
In the last week of March 2012, Alistair Blair used his regular 'No Free Lunch' article in Investors Chronicle to press for the introduction of 'the shareholder committee'. Subtitling the article, "A new look for an old idea", Mr Blair examined one of the ways in which the idea could be implemented.
The March issue of The Private Investor reports on an EU Regulation heading this way that will require the eventual abolition of share certificates, by a process called 'dematerialisation'. This raises serious questions.
Following the Financial Times' report (March 15th, 2012), 'Opponents of FRC revamp thwarted', the UK Shareholders' Association has welcomed the news that the Financial Reporting Council is now independent from the professional bodies which did so much to found it, but came to exercise an influence that has not always been in the interest of investors.
The Financial Reporting Council’s 'engagement' programme comes under severe scrutiny in this month’s issue of The Private Investor.
Writing as trustee of a major pension fund, UKSA member, John Hunter exposes why the institutional shareholder 'stewardship' that the FRC is promoting won’t work: it overlooks the way in which the financial services industry operates.
UKSA works with the FRC to improve corporate governance and values the dialogue we have, but, as John writes:
UKSA continues its work of responding to Governmental and Regulatory proposals. We see this as a way of increasing the profile of UKSA and to encourage such bodies to consider the private (beneficial) shareholder. We have responded to the Preliminary Report of the Sharman Inquiry which is looking into how companies deal with their responsibilities with regard to the Going Concern statements they must make.
In its submission to the first stage of Professor Kay's review into the operation of equity markets in the UK (on behalf of BIS, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), UKSA has asserted that they suffer from the following basic structural flaws:
Chris Hulme, UKSA Chairman, joined a recent discussion panel on BBC 5Live Money News, following a report from the High Pay Commission.
Chris' contribution used to be linked here, bbc.co.uk/i/b017h4q5, 1h:40m into the programme, but has now been lost.:
The UK Shareholders' Association has made a submission to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the Furure of Narrative Reporting.
For full details of UKSA's response see the attached document.
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