|
|
In response to a speech by Rishi Sunak last week on the future of British finance and how regulation would diverge from EU rules after Brexit, the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) wrote to him saying it was concerned the quality of regulatory standards may be under threat.
In his speech, Sunak, the UK’s finance minister, had said that as part of a series of reviews the government was undertaking “to ensure regulation enhances the UK’s attractiveness to business and position as global financial hub”, it would set up a taskforce to propose reforms to the UK listings regime.
The aim of these reforms would be “to attract the most innovative and successful firms and help companies access the finance they need to grow,” he said.
The ICGN – an investor-led coalition of governance professionals which includes many major asset owners as members – said that although Sunak’s statement itself provided little detail about the planned review of the UK listing regime, it had been widely reported that it would consider the introduction of a dual class share regime and lowering current free-float standards.
“Our message to you is that such developments would be unwelcome by a substantial number of institutional investors globally – who are critical stakeholders in the ecosystem of the UK’s financial markets,” the network said.
“We are concerned in particular that we are witnessing a ‘race to the bottom’ by major global stock exchanges seeking to attract listings by watering down governance safeguards,” the ICGN wrote.