City shake-up to get more women in boardrooms May 28, 2010 A shake-up of City firms in which more women will be put in boardrooms, will be undertaken as part of a review of corporate governance. The Financial Reporting Council said it wanted to “explicitly” ensure hiring committees took gender and diversity into account. Only 12 per cent of FTSE 100 directors are women and seven [...]
Directors must be re-elected annually, says new FRC code May 27, 2010 THE CITY has widely welcomed new corporate governance rules set out by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Replacing the former Combined Code, the FRC is introducing the new UK Corporate Governance Code in a bid to make companies more accountable to their shareholders. Among the changes are recommendations that all directors at FTSE 350 companies [...]
Principles and not rules are the way to encourage business to be ethical May 26, 2010 TOMORROW, the Financial Reporting Council will announce the first part of its new code of conduct for corporate governance. It is a welcome step towards ensuring that businesses behave in a responsible way, but more is needed. It has been striking in recent times that the public and policymakers have blamed business’s failures on ethical [...]
HOW THE AGREEMENT AFFECTS THE CITY May 20, 2010 BANKING • The coalition has agreed to impose some kind of levy on the banking industry, although its exact form has yet to be decided. The Tories want to introduce a fee on banks’ wholesale funding, while the Liberal Democrats would prefer a tax on profits. • There is a vague commitment to tackle “unacceptable [...]
EU task force to examine German move May 20, 2010 EUROPEAN Union finance ministers will discuss Germany’s short-selling ban and coordination of such market-moving decisions in the EU on Friday, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said yesterday. Germany did not consult on its decision late on Tuesday to introduce a ban on some short-selling of bonds, stocks and transactions in credit default swaps with [...]
Brussels is about to clobber the City May 16, 2010 HOW absurd. A successful British industry, one which even banker-bashers admit wasn’t responsible for the financial crisis, will this week be hammered by the European Union, marking the new government’s first foreign policy defeat and the latest blow to London’s prosperity. I’m of course referring to the EU’s attack on alternative investment managers, including hedge [...]
Business and King welcome spending cuts May 12, 2010 BANK OF ENGLAND governor Mervyn King yesterday hailed the new coalition government’s plans for an immediate £6bn cut in public spending to tackle Britain’s record peacetime deficit, saying it was imperative that Britain’s fiscal problems are dealt with sooner rather than later. Breaking from his traditional silence on fiscal policy, the governor said he had [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 9, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES GARDNER TO TAKE CONNAUGHT ROLE Connaught will today announce Sir Roy Gardner as its new non-executive chairman in a move the social housing maintainance group hopes will stabilise the business after a turbulent six months. The group, which mends leaky pipes in council houses and sweeps roads, was hit by the sudden resignation [...]
Shareholders question code April 26, 2010 The Investment Management Association, whose members include fund giants such as Henderson and Schroders, said yesterday the Financial Reporting Council’s Stewardship Code for institutional shareholders should to be flexible. The IMA said its members, who collectively own 43 per cent of the UK stockmarket, interacted with their investee companies differently and this needed to be reflected in [...]
ABI director quits for FRC April 21, 2010 THE Association of British Insurers (ABI)’s director of investment affairs is to stand down after a decade at the institution. Peter Montagnon will take up a new role as senior investment adviser to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Montagnon said: “After nearly a decade in this role, now is the right time to take up [...]