Policy & Positions

IR Society News Industry News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 14 November, 2024

The Society would support a system based on the IFRS Foundation taxonomy, to promote the international consistency and comparability of annual financial statements and thus help attract international issuers, dual listings and global investors/capital. Any mandatory reporting and tagging of sustainability-related data would impact on costs, process and timetable for filing ARAs and thus should be phased in over time, starting with the largest caps, to enable the development of software solutions/best practice. Moreover, the cost of introducing ‘disclosure management systems’ to comply with any mandatory sustainability reporting would currently be very significant for small- and mid-cap companies.

IR Society News Industry News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 25 October, 2024

The Society raises issues around the materiality timeframe and quantification/ assessment for proposed requirements for prospectuses to include climate-related disclosure, and supports the concept of introducing a safe harbour for forward looking disclosures but calls for further review of the criteria to ensure it would cover forward-looking climate-related and transition reporting.

IR Society News Industry News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 24 October, 2024

This IR Society response supports transparency of fund investment in the UK’s ‘unlisted’ quoted SME markets (AIM and Aquis) separately from unlisted equity as this could facilitate investor targeting for AIM companies.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 5 June, 2024

In this IR Society response, which draws on the findings from our 2023 member poll on investment research, we emphasise the importance of research for valuations and the London markets, noting the impact of MiFID II unbundling on the quality of coverage and the industry perspectives provided. We are therefore generally supportive of the FCA's proposals for increased payment optionality as this could lead to increased/improved quality of coverage for small- and mid-caps, provided the associated ‘guardrails’ are proportionate and aligned with the equivalent US and proposed EU regimes.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions Research & Surveys 5 January, 2024

This IR Society response draws on the findings from recent member research on Scope 3 and SECR reporting.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 5 October, 2023

This IR Society response draws on the findings from the ESG data/ratings survey carried at Easter this year among our IRO Members, which illustrate a level of dissatisfaction with the current quality of engagement between companies and ESG data and ratings agencies. We hope this principles-based Voluntary Code of Conduct that is being developed for providers of ESG data and ratings will be helpful for our members, given the amount of time/resource IR departments currently spend dealing with these agencies.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions Research & Surveys 13 September, 2023

In this IR Society response, which draws on the findings from recent member research on the FRC's proposals of most relevance to IROs, the Society is generally supportive of the proposed reforms, but calls for more flexibility and less prescription in certain areas, for example, audit committee oversight of narrative and sustainability reporting given many corporates already have a sustainability committee. The Society expresses support for increased transparency around malus and clawback arrangements, although calls for more clarity around disclosure of their ‘usage’. The Society also identifies several areas where more detailed guidance would be helpful, including ‘good’ outcome reporting, ‘significant’ appointments for ‘over-boarding’ disclosures, audit committee engagement with shareholders and oversight of narrative/sustainability reporting.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 30 June, 2023

In this IR Society response, which draws on the findings from recent IRO member research on the FCA's proposed changes to the Listing Rules and on current levels of investment research in the UK, the Society was generally supportive of the proposed reforms given most IRO respondents thought the FCA proposals would reduce regulatory barriers for companies and bolster UK competitiveness. However, the Society highlights concern that a lack of shareholder approvals for major transactions could lead to significant legal and advisory costs in the early days, until a more streamlined approach based on successful transactions establishes best practice, and that a generous transition period could be needed for current standard listings to allow them to comply with the more onerous ‘single category’ continuing obligations. The Society also mentions that liquidity, depth of markets, and comparable peers are thought of by IRO respondents as the most important factors in deciding where to list the proposals, with regulation and valuations also seen as significant factors. The response also highlights some more significant issues that the Society believes may also influence the attractiveness and competitiveness of the London markets, including the UK market’s sensitivity to Directors' remuneration and compensation structures, the quality and timeliness of Investment Research, the need to encourage funds flow into UK asset managers, the suggestion of establishing a framework that better enables companies to identify all short-sellers so that they can engage with them (if they wish), and the UK’s overlapping disclosure and filing obligations which could benefit from being streamlined and simplified.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 30 June, 2023

In this IR Society response, which draws on the findings from recent IRO member research on ESG data and ratings, which underline the importance of ESG ratings to corporates, illustrate a level of dissatisfaction with the quality of engagement between companies and ratings agencies, and indicate strong support for their regulation (90% of respondent IROs think they should be regulated by the FCA). The response also: • recommends that the UK regime is based on recommendations from IOSCO, to avoid regulatory arbitrage across jurisdictions; • calls for consistency and harmonisation with overseas equivalent regulations eg the EU’s recently published Proposal for regulating ESG ratings providers; and • recommends an appropriate transitional period, a phased approach so that smaller agencies have a longer transition period and an ongoing initial ‘start up’ period for new providers.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 24 April, 2023

The IR Society response to this call for evidence indicates that it will be conducting some further member research on current levels of coverage, and also refers to our 2021 MIFID II survey that illustrated the impact on sell-side coverage and quality, the reduced role of corporate broking services and the significant increase in direct interaction between IR departments and investors which has ensued.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 28 February, 2023

The IR Society response supports the proposals but calls for more flexibility in the way transition plans are published so that companies are permitted to include them in their annual report or other relevant reports (eg sustainability or climate reports), instead of being required to publish them as standalone reports.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 8 August, 2022

The IR Society response to the Proposed European Sustainability Reporting Standards issued by EFRAG.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 1 August, 2022

The IR Society welcomed the publication of the ISSB Exposure Drafts IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, which is based on those developed by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and called for as much harmonisation and convergence with existing and emerging standards and frameworks in reporting as possible. The Society also noted that international collaboration in the development of any global baseline for sustainability reporting will be essential for the creation of a disclosure system that can be implemented globally with a consistent approach across markets, thereby optimising reporting efficiency for companies falling under multiple reporting regimes. The Society called for flexibility around the location of sustainability-related financial disclosure, provided the core information is still required to be included within the annual report and accounts, and suggested that any sustainability-related disclosure requirements should recognise that reporting entities may not to be able to obtain complete and accurate, or even estimated, data from entities in the value chain that are beyond the reporting entity’s control.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 1 August, 2022

The IR Society welcomed the publication of the ISSB Exposure Draft IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosure, which is based on those developed by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and called for as much harmonisation and convergence with existing and emerging standards and frameworks in reporting as possible. The Society also noted that international collaboration in the development of any global baseline for climate reporting will be essential for the creation of a disclosure system that can be implemented globally with a consistent approach across markets, thereby optimising reporting efficiency for companies falling under multiple reporting regimes. The Society called for flexibility around the location of climate-related financial disclosure, provided the core information is still required to be included within the annual report and accounts, and suggested that any climate-related disclosure requirements should recognise that reporting entities may not to be able to obtain complete and accurate, or even estimated, data from entities in the value chain that are beyond the reporting entity’s control.

IR Society News Consultation Responses Policy & Positions 18 July, 2022

The IR Society responded to the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce’s call for evidence, supporting the sector-neutral approach and calling for transition plan disclosure requirements to be high level and principles-based, to be underpinned by more detailed non-mandatory guidance (including practical examples). Metrics should be included in such non-mandatory guidance, to give companies the flexibility to determine their own data points / Key Performance Indicators for how they measure progress. The Society called for flexibility around the location of transition plan disclosures, provided the core information is still required to be included within the annual report and accounts, and suggested that any transition plan requirements should recognise that reporting entities may not to be able to obtain data relating to energy usage and emissions from entities in the value chain that are beyond the reporting entity’s control.

Industry News Policy & Positions 18 June, 2021

Investor groups have asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for more corporate disclosures on climate change and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues while business interests have pushed back, a Reuters review of correspondence published by the regulator shows.

IR Society News Policy & Positions 6 July, 2020

The IR Society has published its updated best practice guidelines for members, bringing together the Society’s views on the topics of relevance to our profession.

IR Society News Policy & Positions 13 May, 2020

The IR Society recently conducted a short survey of its IRO members on how companies are seeking to adapt their reporting and investor communications during the crisis.