Regulation: No ‘race to the bottom’
The uncertainty around Brexit has resulted in heightened media scrutiny of contrasting comments about what might happen to regulation in order to keep Britain “competitive.”
Governance Watch - Issue 44
Governance Watch - Issue 38
Data
There is irony in the timing of a £500,000 fine levied on Facebook today by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for two breaches of the Data Protection Act in the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. The breaches occurred before the latest European General Data Protection (GDPR) came into effect in May, therefore the £500,000 cap is one set by the UK’s Data Protection Act 1998.
Governance Watch - Issue 34
Carillion: The Fall Out
There’s a limit, surely, to how often you can plead an exception to the rule when assessing whether something is fit for purpose. When the ‘rule’: in this case, ‘best practice’ in the running a UK listed business adhering to highly esteemed standards of corporate governance, appears to have been ignored more than once within a few years, it’s time to re-think the components of that best practice.
Governance Watch - Issue 19
Listing Rules
The mutterings have been getting louder since the UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority first proposed changing the premium listing rules to entice Saudi Aramco to the London market. The pretence of its consideration as a general rule change for ‘state-owned companies’ evaporated even as the announcement was made and hit the media headlines.
Governance Watch - Issue 14
Appointments and conflicts
There are so many good corporate governance reasons to read this story with interest.
The Bank of England has created a new role of ‘conflicts officer’ in the wake of the events resulting in the resignation of its Deputy Governor, Charlotte Hogg. I covered that story at the time here, on Forbes.
Governance Watch - Issue 13
Regulation and Accountability
It has been an eventful fortnight in UK financial regulation, spewing food for thought on a whole spate of issues around accountability and trust, and their role in better corporate governance.
Almost exactly nine months ago Andrew Bailey, CEO of the UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), spoke out for the first time in the media via an opinion piece in The Guardian to firms that were not applying the senior managers regime that had been in place since March 2016.
Governance Watch - Issue 12
Gender Diversity
One might think that gender diversity could be the easiest component to achieve of any bid to get true cognitive diversity around a boardroom table. But, despite a great deal of effort in the last six years from the U.K. government, CBI support, and cheerleading from a plethora of independent bodies - all well supported by coverage from the mainstream British business media - one sad fact remains true: progress on gender diversity in U.K. boardrooms seems to stall whenever it thinks nobody is watching.
This is not the place to dwell on ‘why is that, exactly?’ But it is a good place to ask what it is that needs to change.
