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 27 February 2008 - The FT - Red top and sandals
27 February 2008 - The FT, Guardian, Evening Standard - Good governance pays better than bad
 27 February 2008 - The Guardian - Rock warnings
 15 Feb 2008 - The FT - A need for even more rigour towards banks risks and exposures
15 Feb 2008 - Guardian - FSA urged to shine light on shareholders' hidden stakes
 28 Jan 2008 - ICSA Guidance on Corporate Representatives released
 05 Dec 2007 - The Daily Telegraph - We made mistakes but were not reckless, banks tell MPs
 05 Dec 2007 - The FT - Myners hits out at governance specialists
 14 Nov 2007 - The Times - C&W raises chief's reward by further GBP5m.  
12 Nov 2007 - The Guardian - Bosses paid more than their firms' value.
 11 Nov 2007 - The Mail on Sunday - Curbs for fat cat pay-offs.
 01 Nov 2007 - The Times - MiFID's architect voices doubts over 'soap opera of a directive'
30 Oct 2007 - Financial Times - Long-term beneficiaries yet to emerge
23 Oct 2007 - Financial Times - UK investors dig in over pre-emption rights
  
 27 February 2008 - The FT - Red top and sandals
 Paul Myners, chairman of Land Securities, memorably dismissed dogmatic corporate governance experts as “the open-toed sandal brigade” in an interview last year. Now, at last, the ABI has provided the sandal brigade with steel toecaps. A new report from the trade group claims to establish a strong link between good governance and strong performance, based on its long record of tackling governance abuse using its headline-friendly colour-coded system of investor alerts.
  
Banks, headhunters, ratings agencies and accountants regularly produce such work, but they use different methodologies and sometimes produce contradictory outcomes. The ABI claims the inconsistencies may in part be due to the short timescale of some surveys - it takes two or three years for the link between poor governance and poor performance to emerge - and a box-ticking approach, as opposed to its qualitative method. In short, its “red-top” alerts are part of the solution, not - as some sceptics believe - part of the problem.
Read this story online at FT.com.
  
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27 February 2008 - Good governance pays better than bad, ABI says
Research by the Association of British Insurers has found that companies which employ high standards of corporate governance perform better than those which are poorly governed. The ABI found that share price returns are 18pc higher in those companies adopting good business practices and they were also 9pc less volatile. The research was based on how many times FTSE All-Share firms were awarded a "red top" or "amber top" by the ABI with "red top" the organisation's most serious factor pointing toward governance breaches.

Read the full story online at FT.com, Evening Standard, and The Guardian.
  
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27 February 2008 - Rock warnings
Memo to all those corporate executives and commentators who rubbish investing institutions that insist on high standards of corporate governance as fussy box-tickers. A survey shows that those companies that operate to the highest standards produce far higher returns than those which raise a corporate finger to governance guidelines. An average of 18%, in fact.

Now those who regard corporate governance campaigners as an irritant will simply point out that this survey was carried out by the ABI, for which governance is a serious matter and which invests considerable resources in advising its members how to vote at annual meetings - with its blue, amber and red-top warnings signifying whether there are no worries, serious concerns or a situation so poor that investors should just say no. To which the ABI need point out just one piece of information: that while almost all City analysts were rating Northern Rock a must-have stock, the ABI was noting serious concerns about the way the directors were paying themselves. And it flagged that warning for four years in a row.

Read this story online at The Guardian.  
  
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15 February 2008 - A need for even more rigour towards banks risks and exposures
 Letter: Peter Montagnon, Director of Investment Affairs at the ABI, says it is important for auditors to adopt a rigorous approach to ensure that this round of bank reports reveal all risks and exposures.
Read the full story online at FT.com.
  
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15 February 2008 - FSA urged to shine light on shareholders' hidden stakes
 The FSA is being lobbied by City investors to demand more information about positions taken up via the stock market, even if they are not built up through direct share ownership. Positions in CFDs currently have to be disclosed under the takeover code, but not in everyday situations. The ABI is calling for disclosure of all positions of 3pc or more, including shares held to exposures through CFDs.
Read the full story online at The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph.
  
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28 January 2008 - ICSA Guidance on Corporate Representatives released
 The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) today published a guidance note which addresses the issue of how investors can best take part in company general meetings. The new law, which took effect under the Companies Act 2006 on 1 October 2007, is unclear on this point. Our policy is to seek confirmation from Companies that they will operate under this guidance. Option 1, where the Chairman acts as the Corporate Representative, is seen as the preferred route.  
More information is available on the ICSA website.
  
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 05 Dec 2007 - The Daily Telegraph - We made mistakes but were not reckless, banks tell MPs
 Investment banks at the centre of the credit crunch admitted to mistakes in their handling of the sub-prime crisis but rejected accusations of recklessness. More than $50bn ( £24bn) has now been written off by investment banks and analysts estimate there may be another $200bn of bad debts still to be recognised. Asked in later testimony alongside other institutional investors where the bad debts might be, Peter Montagnon, director of investment affairs at the Association of British Insurers, said: "That is a good question. We can't trace a lot of it."
  
Read the full story online at The Telegraph.
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05 Dec 2007 - The FT - Myners hits out at governance specialists
 Paul Myners, chairman of Guardian Media Group and Land Securities has hit out at “the open-toed sandal brigade”, his description for corporate governance experts, because of their obsession with pay and board structure. Peter Montagnon, director of investment affairs at the Association of British Insurers, said: “Our interest in governance relates to long-term value ... The evidence is that the integration of corporate governance with portfolio management has improved recently”.

Read the full story online at FT.com.
  
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 14 Nov 07 - The Times - C&W raises chief's reward by further GBP5m  
 Cable & Wireless is set for another damaging clash with investors after a management shake-up increased the amount payable to its UK head John Pluthero by GBP5m. C&W has already antagonised investors with its private equity-style incentive scheme for executives. The overhaul will see the departure of Harris Jones, C&W's international head, who will leave with a payout of around GBP5m. Peter Montagnon, director of investment affairs at the ABI, said he would be 'looking into' the remuneration scheme, which appeared to be 'quite unusual.'
  
Read the full story online at Times Online.
  
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12 Nov 07 - The Guardian - Bosses paid more than their firms' value
A new survey undertaken by Growth Company Investor is likely to reignite the acrimonious debate about executive pay awards. The data shows that the directors of companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) saw their pay leap by an average of 38 per cent last year, with some bosses' salaries now greater than the valuations of the firms they head.
  
Read the full story online at The Guardian.
  
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11 Nov 07 - The Mail on Sunday - Curbs for fat cat pay-offs
 The Association of British Insurers and the National Association of Pension Funds plan to tighten their recommendations on directors' severance which were first drawn up in 2002. Since then the average annual pay for a FTSE100 chief executive has doubled to GBP3.2 million. There are concerns that the economic downturn could lead to huge pay-offs for executives.
  
 Read the full story online at The Mail on Sunday.
  
01 Nov 07 - The Times - MiFID's architect voices doubts over 'soap opera of a directive'
 Theresa Villiers, the former Conservative MEP responsible for steering MiFID on to Europe's statute books, has attacked the new securities directive as bureaucratic, expensive and far from proven. The directive has also been criticised for the high cost of implementation. In Britain, the FSA has estimated that changes such as upgrading IT and trade-reporting systems will hit businesses with one-off costs of up to GBP1.2bn. Peter Montagnon at the Association of British Insurers concurred with Ms Villiers, stating that she was 'absolutely right' about the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of MiFID.
  
Read the full story online at Times Online.
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30 Oct 07 - Financial Times - Long-term beneficiaries yet to emerge
 A spokesperson from the Association of British Insurers comments on MiFID: 'There has been a lengthy debate about what this involves. It remains to be seen how this will be enacted in markets where there is little price transparency.'
  
Read the full story online at FT.com.
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23 Oct 07 - Financial Times - UK investors dig in over pre-emption rights
 The EU's suggestion that pre-emptive rights could be removed has infuriated UK investors. The European Commission is conducting a review of European company law which is nearing the end of its consultation stage. The Association of British Insurers has written to the government, arguing that pre-emption rights are "vital in protecting investors."
  
Read the full story online at FT.com.
  
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