Head nodders, smart arses & good, competent folk

October 30th, 2009 | 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars Loading ... Loading ... | Email This | Print This | |

Strewth, our antipodean friends don’t mince their words. Or very specifically, New Zealand’s Business Day blogger, Bruce Sheppard doesn’t.

As the Southern proxy season comes to a close (for our research team that is), we’ve been reflecting on the direct and blunt approach the Australian and NZ market observers have been taking. After much deliberation, Bruce Sheppard More…

Increase in non-Big Four auditors in FTSE 350 stalls

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The FRC has published its Fourth Progress Report on the implementation of the MPG recommendations on promoting choice in the UK audit market. In October 2007, the MPG published 15 recommendations intended to allow the audit market to work more efficiently and, in the medium‐to‐long‐term, to have a positive impact on audit choice in the UK.

The More…

Asian Sustainability Ratings - China leapfrogs Hong Kong

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CSR Asia has announced the launch of a major new initiative to help improve Asian reporting standards. The Asian Sustainability Rating provides an in depth assessment of CSR related disclosure of 200 of the largest companies across ten countries in Asia. According to CSR Asia, this is the first Asian based analysis of the largest companies in More…

Canadian banks agree voluntary say-on-pay resolutions

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Canada’s largest financial institutions have agreed a voluntary approach to “say-on-pay” which will see a standardised, non-binding shareholder vote proposed during the 2010 season. In a sharp contrast to the US’ legislative battle to give shareholders a voice on executive pay, Canadian shareholder groups and companies have worked together to create a common format which they hope More…

Annual reports are dreadful says auditor

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The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) published the results of its review of narrative reporting on 29 October, and its release was trailed by separate reports from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Deloitte.

PwC “recognise that reporting is not made easy by the regulatory demands imposed on all companies today, but sadly too many reports display the dead hands of More…