Yesterday's announcement from the Institutional Shareholders Committee (the investor trade body collective) is interesting, if a little unclear. The ISC confirms the heavily trailed inquiry into the fees paid on rights issues.
But the ISC also announces that it plans "to establish a new senior body, the Institutional Investor Council (IIC), to build a single voice for the institutional investor community and strengthen its profile." ooerr that sounds quite a bit like the Council of Institutional Investors, the US investor body. Thing is, the CII is driven by pension funds and asset managers are non-voting members. In contrast 3 of the 4 bodies in the ISC represent asset managers of one form or another.
I don't want to be cynical about this, as a genuinely independent IIC could be great. But that will require the role of trade bodies being much diminished, a recognition of the inevitable conflicts (AIC members are listed companies, as are many ABI members and some IMA members, plus the sponsors on NAPF members) and some new blood. I am a bit concerned that the New ISC may end up drawing on the usual suspects. Here's hoping I'm wrong.
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