ShareSoc News

Better Finance finds that commission-based distribution models cost individual investors up to 15% of their investments in sales commissions

ShareSoc is a member of BETTER FINANCE, who represent c. 28 European shareholder organisations. Better Finance have just issued a report that finds that commission-based distribution models cost individual investors up to 15% of their investments in sales commissions and generate conflicts of interest which severely hurt their performance. Click here to read the full press release and access the full report.

ShareSoc response to FCA Consultation CP21/36: A New Consumer Duty

In a detailed 12 page response to the FCA Consultation, ShareSoc made the following key points: We welcome consultation paper CP21/36 and its proposed new Consumer Duty, which we believe will set clearer and higher standards. We believe that the proposal should be labelled as a Duty of Care. We do not understand why the FCA has not done this. We also believe it is not clear whether the FCA’s central proposal is intended to create a duty of care. We ...

ShareSoc Informer #119 – Out now!

We're delighted to present our first ShareSoc Informer issue for 2022.   We lead with an introduction to our new Chair, Sheryl Cuisia, who took over the role from Mark Northway at the beginning of the year and who is spearheading an executive-led transformation process to prepare ShareSoc for its next phase of development.   Faith Glasgow looks at the rising spectre of inflation and examines the tools available to closed-end funds for combatting rising consumer prices.     The Informer is a great way to catch up with what ShareSoc has ...

Enabling investment in productive finance – Consultation Response

On 17 January 2022, ShareSoc and UKSA submitted a joint response to the Department for Work & Pensions November 2021 consultation "Enabling investment in productive finance - proposals to remove performance-based fees from the charge cap" where we made these points: We would like to register our deep concern about the suggestions in this consultation paper. We are seriously concerned that the DWP has failed to think these proposals through. The Ministerial Foreword says, for example, “In the last few months, the government, alongside ...

Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update 20 Dec 2021

Since Oct 12 (see previous update here), we have worked on: Audit and Governance reform: many members have told us of their concerns about the disasters at Carillion and many others. We view the audit and governance reforms as crucial and have pressed for these to be moved forward as quickly as possible. We are concerned about lobbying to slow down this progress and co-signed a letter to the FT which was published on 12 Nov. 21. Woodford Campaign: ...

Sirius Minerals Update #15

Following the update in May, the Sirius Claim Group has been working with potential legal partners to consider potential claims. There are a number of different claims that are being considered but, in all cases, they must pass the significant challenge of not only being considered technically viable by both legal and financial partners but also, that any derived awards/damages/compensation must substantiate the time, effort and risk of pursuing.  It follows therefore, that reviewing potential claims is a time consuming and very detailed piece of ...

We’re hiring! Can you help us to recruit a General Manager?

Having reached our 10 year anniversary in 2021, we are excited to enter a new era of our organisation in 2022 to be even more inclusive of investors from...

Halifax UK Growth Fund – Note for ShareSoc Members – Appeal for Help

Harcus Parker (HP) has been investigating claims against fund managers and others for closet tracking: the practice of describing a fund as actively managed and charging for that service but in fact merely tracking an index or constraining performance. HP are currently focussing investigations on two subsidiaries of Lloyds Banking Group, Scottish Widows and the Halifax. HP have now identified that the Halifax UK Growth Fund appears to be managed in exactly the same manner as the Scottish Widows UK Growth Fund, ...

Bacanora Lithium: Think BIG ask Board to seek better offer

Think BIG, who ShareSoc are supporting in their campaign, have sent the following letter to the Board of Bacanora Lithium. This letter will be RNS’d by ShareSoc at 07.45 tomorrow morning 25 November.  Think BIG - Bacanora Investors’ Group 24 November , 2021 To the Board of Directors Bacanora Lithium plc (the “Board”). In this Open Letter we explain our reasons why we think the offer from Ganfeng is not in the best interests of shareholders, suggest the Board seek to negotiate a ...

FT publishes Audit Reform Letter signed by ShareSoc and UKSA

The FT has published our letter about "Letter: Investors are let down by the decision to dilute boardroom rules" see https://www.ft.com/content/ff6af1c7-6cb9-4fd8-9be0-43c11bcf89bb The letter we wrote was as follows: Sir Many investors will be disappointed to read the article headed “Backlash spurs dilution of audit reform” (Report, November 9). The reforms are supposed to restore trust in governance and audit. Sir John Kingman’s review emphasised that the best way to do this was to focus on “the interests of consumers of financial information, not producers”. ...

Bacanora Update 30 Oct – Think BIG send letter to shareholders

Sharesoc continue to support Think BIG. ShareSoc have requisitioned the shareholder register and Think BIG have this week sent the following letter to close to 10,000 shareholders. This had to be sent by post, incurring significant costs which were met by crowdfunding from dissatisfied investors, as the company refused to supply us with email addresses: Think BiG Letter to BCN Shareholders https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/news/2021/10/14/the-battle-for-bacanora/ is a good write up of the issues and why we think there should be a higher offer for Bacanora. More information ...

FRC consultation on proposed revisions to the Audit Firm Governance Code – UKSA and ShareSoc draft response

UKSA’s policy team are drafting a reply, jointly with ShareSoc, to the FRC’s consultation on proposed revisions to the Audit Firm Governance Code see https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/1a453bac-671f-4375-a738-9d6fc7f73262/Consultation-Proposed-Revisions-to-the-Audit-Firm-Governance-Code-(August-2021).pdf. We believe audits are important to shareholders as they underpin their confidence and trust in their companies, management and the numbers they report. In relation to audits it therefore follows that the audit regulator’s requirements for audit firms’ governance is also important and we would like to provide our thoughts to the FRC on this. We ...