Shareholder Rights: Positive noises from Law Commission re nominees and Sirius problems

This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

Our most important campaign is Shareholder Rights which relates to the current problems with nominee accounts. This is so important because it impacts all our other campaigns and work with companies our members invest in. At long last this issue is being reviewed by government. I last wrote about this last year in these two blogs

ShareSoc-UKSA Response: Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities – Call for Evidence which includes a copy of our response to the consultation

The Law Commission begins review of intermediated securities system

I am very pleased at the response received on 29 Jan 2020 from Professor Sarah Green, the Law Commissioner, in reply to our letter to her of 27 Jan 2020. She copied her response to:

Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP, Secretary of State, for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Christopher Woolard, Chief Executive, Financial Conduct Authority

Sir Jon Thompson, Chief Executive, Financial Reporting Council

Most importantly, she agreed that the Sirius situation highlights some of the problems that may arise in relation to holding shares through an intermediated securities chain. In particular regarding communication between ultimate investors, and the scope for ultimate investors’ views to be taken into account in a scheme of arrangement.

Here is a copy of her reply: Sirius-Law-Commission-Response-29-Jan-2020

and below is our letter to the Secretary of State for Business, the Right Hon Andrea Leadsom MP.

Sirius-Andrea-Leadsom-letter-27-Jan-2020

There are a number of different prongs to the work that the Sirius team is doing and this is just one of the many important aspects to our campaign. The scope of the campaign is expanding fast and Paul de Gruchy will be writing a blog on the various strands of the Sirius campaign that we are pursuing.

I trust the above letters will reassure ShareSoc members that we are pursuing their concerns at the very highest levels, by all means that are available to us.

For more information about the ShareSoc Sirius Group click here https://www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/sirius/

 

Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director Policy and Campaigns

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.