On Monday April 1, 2013, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) ceased to be, being split into two new regulatory bodies for the financial services industry, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA). In news that will interest many of the clients of the company secretarial services of London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk), the FCA has equipped itself with a business plan and risk outlook for its governing of the industry in the year to come. Continue reading

Organisations using the company secretarial services of London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk) may be interested to read of a recent Audit Quality Forum meeting, at which the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Melanie McLaren discussed audit committee reporting and the issue of audit rotation. Continue reading

London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) reports on news that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) is consulting on whether to tighten the listing requirements in a bid to meet higher corporate governance standards. Continue reading

As a leading corporate and legal support firm, London Registrars is acutely aware of the importance of company compliance. Indeed, assisting organisations with governance and compliance lies at the heart of the London Registrars service offering. Now, a new study has found that complying with the UK Corporate Governance Code is linked to a company’s general financial performance. Continue reading

As specialists in company compliance and corporate governance, London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) understands that there can often be a gap between best practice in theory and the practical reality of running an organisation. Research published earlier this year in The ICSA Chartered Secretary Magazine revealed that this is indeed the case within the NHS; that NHS boards are failing in key areas of corporate governance.

The ICSA research project, the results of which were published in the magazine in August of this year, was called ‘Mapping the Gap’ and involved analysing 1,277 board agendas and carrying out 176 questionnaires and interviews with participating NHS board members. ICSA identified four key areas of corporate governance as the focus of this research: strategy; decision-making; clinical and quality matters; and probity and transparency. The principal findings of the study which pointed to a significant gap between best practice in theory and in reality were:

• 10 per cent of agenda items were regarding strategy, markedly failing the best practice recommendations of 60 per cent;
• Just 5 per cent of NHS boards aligned clinical and quality issues to strategic objectives;
• Board members were more frequently issued with items to note than asked for concrete decisions;
• Just 75 per cent of board agendas included items which were declarations of interest;
• Clinical and quality issues took up between 4 and 13 per cent of the top five agenda items, failing to reach the governance guidelines of a minimum of 20 per cent;
• 1 per cent of those surveyed in the questionnaires agreed that a priority for the board was involving the public in shaping NHS healthcare services.

Seamus Gillen, Director of Policy at ICSA, stated in the magazine that “Good practice governance allows NHS Trusts to be efficient, effective, and accountable. It underpins everything. These findings illustrate that there is a gap between good practice and what happens in reality. We need far more emphasis on strategy and effective decision-making if NHS boards are to achieve their objectives in an increasingly fluid environment”.

With the expert assistance of corporate and legal support firm London Registrars, organisations can ensure that they are meeting best practice targets in corporate governance. Find out more athttps://www.london-registrars.co.uk/.

Financial and corporate reporting is a hugely time consuming affair for a company of any size. But company compliance with financial reporting is particularly difficult for smaller businesses with fewer in-house resources to assist with this function. Here, corporate governance experts London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) looks at a government-led discussion paper which proposes to cut this form of red tape for small businesses. Continue reading

A recent high profile case, details of which were published on the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) website, serves as a reminder as to the importance of substantial shareholders declaring their interests in full and in a timely fashion, reports company complianceand corporate support firm London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/).

In August of this year, the FSA published a final notice which imposed a penalty of £210,000 on the former chairman of Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, Sir Ken Morrison, for a breach of DTR 5.8.3R. The FSA’s guidelines state DTR 5.8 to be “procedures for the notification and disclosure of major holdings”, with DTR 5.8.3R stipulating that “the notification to the issuer shall be effected as soon as possible”. The final penalty notice stated that between 16 September 2009 and 21 June 2010, Mr Morrison’s voting rights in Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc had fallen below 6%, 5%, 4% and 3%. It went on to state that Mr Morrison failed to notify the company of the transactions causing the reduction in voting rights until 1 March 2011, which led to the company not being in a position to update the market in accordance with DTR 5.8.12R(1) of FSA guidelines. This meant that Mr Morrison’s level of shareholding was not listed correctly in the company’s annual report placed on 31 January 2010. Both the significant delay in making the required notification and Mr Morrison’s prominent position were taken into account by the FSA when considering the failings and levying the penalty.

While this is a particularly high profile case, it does serve to remind all substantial shareholders of UK companies the importance of DTR 5.8. London Registrars assists with company compliance in this matter, managing the register where substantial shareholders declare their interests, as well as generally advising on when declarations must be made, including in cases where directors are also substantial shareholders.

This is just one area of corporate governance and legal support offered by London Registrars, which also provides company secretarial services. For further details on the full range of services, go to https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/.

The management consultant firm McKinsey & Company has carried out a global survey of directors which has highlighted that half of them do not sufficiently challenge management strategy, reveals company secretarial services and corporate support firm London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/). Continue reading