Wednesday 27 June 2007

ISC guidance on voting disclosure


The Institutional Shareholders Committee - an umbrella grouping for the big investor trade bodies in the UK - has today issued its guidance on public disclosure of voting records (subject of the LAPFF report yesterday). See their webpage and this is the actual document.

Having been involved in this issue a great deal over the past few years I have to say I'm a bit disappointed by the ISC framework. It just about endorses public disclosure but doesn't really give guidance on the level of disclosure, or how often it should be updated. And given that the approach is basically "comply or explain" I suspect that many managers will continue to keep their voting records in the dark.

It will be interesting to see how the Government responds if fund managers don't play ball. You get the impression they really don't want to use their reserve power. But, if this document has the lack of impact I expect, the industry may actually force the Government to move.

Hmmm....

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