Long Governance - Is Reform Still Needed?

A Z/Yen, Long Finance, ACCA and Quakers & Business Event

Date: Wednesday 24 November
Time: 9:30 to 12:30
Location: Grant Thornton, 30 Finsbury Square (map)

This event was generously hosted by Grant Thornton.

Vince Cable, UK Secretary of State for Business, launched a review on corporate governance and short-termism on 25 October. Called ‘A Long-Term Focus for Corporate Britain’, it seeks evidence on the existence of short-termism and market failure and aims to identify the issues and their causes, whether in law or behaviour.

PROGRAMME

Welcome: Sterl Greenhalgh (Partner, Grant Thornton)

Introduction (download presentation): Professor Michael Mainelli (Director, Z/Yen Group Limited)

Speaker: Paul Moxey (Head of Corporate Governance and Risk Management, ACCA) - Long Governance: What's Missing? (download presentation)

Despite 20 years of rapid evolution in governance and in risk management, the credit scrunch demonstrated yet more examples of failure in what had hitherto been believed to be well governed institutions with leading edge risk management. So what is going on? Is there a fundamental problem with corporate governance and risk management as we currently know it? Will the new Stewardship Code make a difference? What more can institutional investors do to ensure companies are governed for the long term and investee boards properly manage risk?

Download video

Discussion:

What needs to change?

Panellists: Frank Curtiss (Head of Corporate Governance, Railpen Investments)
Andrew Kakabadse (Professor of International Management Development, Cranfield University, School of Management)
John Kay (Economist and author of “The Long and Short of It”, 2009)
Chair: Professor Michael Mainelli (Director, Z/Yen Group Limited)

Speaker: Eoin McCarthy (Quakers and Business) - Long Governance: Where's The Incentive? (download presentation)

The behaviour of directors and investors is key to the long term success of any company. In financial services, regulation exerts a particularly strong influence on that behaviour and the consequences can be both surprising and unwelcome. The Basel framework unwittingly created incentives for the massive build up in leverage and credit boom. This contributed to prosperity for many but, as we now know, was not sustainable and had massive social cost. This session will explore how directors and investors can be more wary of how incentives, particularly where triggered by regulation, affect behaviour and how to balance short-term benefits against long term costs. In light of this, our panel will consider the question: "Where’s the incentive for long governance?"

Discussion:

Where's the incentive for long governance?

Panellists: Eoin McCarthy (Quakers and Business)
John Kay (Economist and author of “The Long and Short of It”, 2009)
Sean Tully (Managing Director, WestLB Debt Markets and co-author of "Restoring Confidence in the Financial System: See-Through-Leverage: A powerful new tool for revealing and managing risk”, 2010)
Chair: Professor Michael Mainelli (Director, Z/Yen Group Limited)