2021

Charles Henderson's appointment represents a significant step for private investors, endorsing UKSA's influence in support of their rights.

An initiative by Dean Buckner’s UKSA policy team exposing weaknesses in Bain Capital’s bid for LV was sent to the FCA and picked up by the national press. The members rejected the bid by the small margin of 6%.

Speaking after the vote, Dean Buckner said:

A welcome move by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to discourage the use of all the waffle in the narrative sections of the annual report. But will it work…?

IASB/IFRS Exposure Draft (ED2021/6) have produced a revised practice statement for preparers of the Management Commentary.

What is the Management Commentary?

We all agree to having a healthy business environment. So why water down measures that would reduce the risk of fraud and mis-statements?

The ruling is a travesty because the judge has ignored or misunderstood the points made by Dr Dean Buckner (policy director, UKSA) and Professor Ken Dowd, Durham University.

The Campaign.

UKSA has been supporting PAC policyholders who object to ‘Part VII’ process of transferring insurance obligations from Prudential to Rothesay Life. 

UKSA and ShareSoc policy teams were contacted, as rated by the IASB and for providing useful feedback on accounting standards, to provide further input to their goodwill and impairment project

FRC doing their best to keep audit reform momentum going

UKSA directors Martin White and Helen Gibbons attended a conference in Slovenia organised by Better Finance – the European umbrella body for organisations representing individual investors. Helen is a director of Better Finance and Martin was an invited speaker, text here.

UKSA’s policy team are drafting a reply jointly with ShareSoc to the Financial Reporting Council’s consultation on proposed revisions to the Audit Firm Governance Code.

HMT wants to facilitate wider participation in the ownership of public companies, and to remove the current disincentives. 

It will be brilliant if HMT achieves this.  It would be a win/win/win for society, companies and investors, allowing for a broader cross-section of society to benefit, provide companies access to a broader investor base, and helping to increase the liquidity of markets.  The consultation document can be found here.