Investor Advisory Group of the Financial Reporting Council
I’m delighted to have been asked to join the newly-formed Investor Advisory Group of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).
The FRC’s mission is to promote transparency and integrity in business. It sets the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes and all UK standards for accounting and actuarial work; it monitors and promotes the quality of corporate reporting and operates independent enforcement arrangements for accountants and actuaries. As the competent authority for audit in the UK, the FRC sets auditing and ethical standards and monitors and enforces audit quality.
As part of our commitment to thoughtful investing, we have contributed to the work of the FRC for some time. For example, in February this year, our own Simon Holman sat on a distinguished panel at an event organised jointly by the FRC and our friends at Alliance Manchester Business School entitled “Revitalising Corporate Governance.”
The role of the Investor Advisory Group (IAG) will be to provide a regular forum for the FRC to engage with representatives from across the investment chain on various issues, including its strategy as well as new policies and standards on governance, stewardship, reporting and audit matters.
The IAG will also help the FRC to understand more clearly the investment community’s views on its effectiveness. We will meet four times a year as a formal way of understanding key areas of concern and emerging risks from the perspective of investors.
The Group is made up of experts in responsible investment from across the investment industry, ranging from traditional institutional investors and big banks to a sovereign wealth fund and a credit ratings agency.
The FRC is working on several interesting and challenging projects just now so it’s a fantastic time to become involved. I am looking forward to the first meeting of the Group in July and I’m hoping to bring a smaller-firm, non-London viewpoint to the discussions while drawing on the work around governance and engagement of the entire Castlefield team to help influence FRC policy.
David Gorman