Audit watchdog unveils new code on stewardship
Britain’s governance and audit watchdog has opened consultation on its new code for investor stewardship.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said the proposed new code “sets substantially higher expectations for investor stewardship policy and practice”.
The consultation will run until 27 March. The FRC is under raised pressure to deliver changes this year, after the code was brutally criticised by Legal & General chairman Sir John Kingman in his review of the regulator, published last month.
Kingman warned: “If the code remains simply a driver of boilerplate reporting, serious consideration should be given to its abolition.”
Sir Win Bischoff, chair of the FRC, said it had “conducted extensive outreach in early 2018 to inform this review of the stewardship code”.
“We believe the changes proposed put it at the forefront of stewardship internationally,” he added.