Europe: gender balance on company boards - Commission report and consultation paper

The Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, today presented a progress report on the representation of women on listed company boards: see here (pdf). The report notes that in January 2012, women represented 13.7% of directors of the largest listed companies in the EU. Accompanying the report is a consultation paper in which the Commission seeks views on possible EU wide measures to address the gender imbalance: see here (doc).

UK: FRC consults on draft plan and budget 2012/13

The Financial Reporting Council is consulting on its draft plan and budget for 2012/13: see here (pdf). The Plan notes that the FRC Board and Government are close to reaching conclusions on the reform of the FRC, following a consultation which closed in January (responses for which are available here). These proposals are not considered in the Plan, which instead focuses on the FRC's activities for the year ahead. These include consultations on revised versions of the Corporate Governance Code and Stewardship Code as well as consultations concerning [a] the depth of commitment to stewardship by owners and institutional shareholders, [b] the value of company reports, and [c] the quality and reporting of the board’s assessment of risk (including the role of the auditor in this regard).

UK: the strategic objective of the Financial Conduct Authority

The Financial Services Bill continues to be debated at Committee Stage in the House of Commons. One of the amendments considered yesterday by the Committee concerned the strategic objective of the new Financial Conduct Authority. The Bill as introduced to Parliament provides, in clause 5, that the FCA's strategic objective is to ensure that relevant markets "function well". It was suggested that this should be made clearer by the inclusion of the words "fairly, efficiently and transparently".  This was not accepted and the amendment was withdrawn. It is likely, nevertheless, that this issue will be further discussed at the Bill's Report Stage.

Germany: amendments to the 2010 corporate governance code

In early February, as noted here, the German Corporate Governance Commission published proposals to amend the 2010 edition of its corporate governance code. Details of the proposed revisions, together with a marked-up copy of the revised code, have now been published in English: see, respectively, here (pdf) and here (pdf).

Australia: remuneration disclosure - ASIC survey and Government proposals

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has published the results of its recent survey of remuneration disclosure by 50 ASX300 companies: see here. ASIC has called for improvements in disclosure, especially with regard to the reasons why particular remuneration arrangements have been adopted. The publication of ASIC's research follows the publication earlier this month by the Australian Government of legislative proposals to increase listed companies' disclosure of remuneration matters including the clawing back of bonuses and golden handshakes. The Government's announcement, available here, also outlines its response to the recommendations made by the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee last year in a report on executive remuneration (available here, pdf).