Tuesday, 14 December 2010

So, does the Institutional Investor Council really exist?

Slightly provocative question I know, but I don't see many signs of the IIC having an existence of its own beyond the Rights Issue Fees Inquiry (RIFI). The IIC has a web address - http://www.iicouncil.org.uk - but it seems to be (to date anyway) purely for the RIFI report. There is no info about the IIC membership, structure or anything like that. Notably the copyright for the RIFI report itself is attributed to the ABI and IMA, rather than the IIC. (PS - note that the AIC is missing from the investor trade bodies on the front of the RIFI report too)

We should have heard something about the IIC by now. According to the blurb on the Institutional Shareholders Committee website here, news of progress should have been out several months ago:
The ISC will now proceed to formalise a constitution for the new Council, involving the creation of a Nominations Committee to ensure high calibre, representative membership, and the election of a chair. The ISC will report on progress before the end of August.
If I am being unfair, and this has been reported somewhere, do let me know. But after a number of web trawls I've been unable to find anything about a constitution or any news of who the IIC is.

My assumption is that the IIC initiative was principally a response to Lord Myners' criticisms of the ISC. Now Myners is out of government I assume the momentum has gone, and maybe the Coalition has given the nod to the trade bodies that they won't be any trouble. Hence no need to to deliver on a promise to improve investor collaboration at a senior level that only a few saddoes like me will bother to go back and check on. I am genuinely amazed that not a single journalist appears to have asked any questions about who the IIC actually is and what it has done.

Anyway, all this suggests to me that we might not be hearing much about the IIC going forward. If anyone thinks otherwise do let me know.

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