IoD reaction to Vince Cable’s Equity Market Review

Dated: 23 June 2011

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has announced an independent review into the functioning of UK equity markets, led by Professor John Kay. Commenting, Miles Templeman, Director General of the Institute of Directors, said

“The latest review addresses a number of important issues relating to the governance activities of institutional investors. There is no doubt that many investors could do more to engage with their companies under ownership. However, these are issues which have already been considered in a number of Government reviews of corporate governance over the last couple of years, including the recent BIS consultation on short-termism. It is not clear what a further review of these issues will uncover. What is needed right now is a period of stability in corporate policy making, not further uncertainty”.

The review will examine:

  • How best to make sure that timescales over which investment risks and rewards are considered best matches the interests of clients, beneficiaries and companies;
  • Ways to strengthen the engagement between institutional investors and companies;
  • The most effective ways of boosting transparency for clients, beneficiaries and companies themselves;
  • The legal duties and responsibilities of asset ownership in the UK; and
  • The impact of increasingly fragmented share ownership.

ENDS

Contact Points

Edwin Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 3392
Mob: +44 (0)7814 386 243
Email: edwin.morgan@iod.com
Website: www.iod.com/policy

Notes to editors

  • The IoD (Institute of Directors) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with upwards of 45,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.
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