The California Public Employees Retirement System, or CalPERS, is the US’s largest pension fund which provides retirement benefits to 1.6 million public employees. It’s also one of the most active proponents of good corporate governance on both a domestic and global stage. The latest target of their ire is the credit rating industry which it […]
Read MoreThe UK Government and Treasury has, perhaps not entirely surprisingly, warmly welcomed Sir David Walker’s proposals for the reform of the corporate governance of UK banks. At the same time, Lord Myners, the Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury has given the market a strong steer on possible next steps for the proposed reforms, including taking them on to a global […]
Read MoreSir David Walker’s review of the governance of UK banks, commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has published 39 recommendations aimed at improving the governance of banks and other big financial institutions (BOFIs). The aim of the report was to find ways of minimising risky behaviour and improving the way companies and shareholder communicate and interact. Many of the […]
Read MoreAs much as the combination of a chair and CEO role provokes concerns amongst investors, at an operational level Manifest has had concerns over the combination of the roles of Company Secretary and Finance Director for some years now. Firstly there is the potential for compromising of the independence of the Company Secretary with respect […]
Read MoreThe Bundesrat is expected to ratify Gesetz zur Angemessenheit der Vorstandsvergütung – VorstAG today, following its approval by the Bundestag on 18 June 2009. The new law will then come into effect upon its publication in the German Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt). One key change resulting from the Act, which translates as the Act on […]
Read MoreThe Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has published its latest analysis of reporting against the ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Principles and Recommendations and finds that companies and trusts are continuing to improve their corporate governance reporting. ASX’s supervision subsidiary, ASX Markets Supervision (ASXMS), reviewed the FY08 annual reports of 1,510 listed entities that reported with a 30 June […]
Read MoreNine out of ten audit committee members say that the recession has increased the risk of earnings management and other misconduct – and yet fraud risk was the issue committees felt they were least effective at overseeing. Research by KPMG’s Audit Committee Institute amongst 1,000 audit committee members in 25 countries has found that the economic downturn […]
Read MoreThe Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has this week announced The Companies (Shareholders’ Rights) Regulations 2009 (to come into force on August 3rd), signalling completion of the final legislative stage of the European Shareholders’ Rights Directive. The Directive began life as a proposal and consultation by the European Commission back in 2004 and had […]
Read MoreThe governance issues raised by the Marks & Spencer AGM and Manifest’s analysis of the outcome received broad coverage in the UK press and broadcast media. In addition to newspaper coverage, Manifest was asked for its input on BBC Radio 5 Live’s “Wake Up to Money” and BBC Radio 4’s flagship current affairs program, “Today”. While […]
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