Ethical Mandates and Green Banking Trends

As an outcome of the introduction of the UKLR sourcebook in July 2024, both the London Stock Market (LSE) and FTSE Russell made consequential changes to their guidelines. In July 2024, the LSE validated modifications to its Admission and Disclosure Standards to show the collapse of the previous premium and standard listing sectors into the new business business category.

It then issued a summary and Frequently asked questions verifying its view when the final UKLR sourcebook was published in July 2024. One of the steps proposed as part of the Edinburgh Reforms in December 2022 was the establishment of the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, chaired by Charlie Geffen. The goal of the taskforce was to think about the potential advantages of the UK relocating to a T +1 securities settlement cycle and detail how this change might be executed.

, chaired by Sir Douglas Flint.

Top Investment Insights for Mid-Market Growth

In July 2023, the taskforce released an Interim Report (read our summary here) that made a number of suggestions, consisting of: legislation needs to be brought forward, and business short articles of association altered, as quickly as practicable to stop the issuance of new paper share certificates; the federal government should bring forward legislation to need dematerialisation of all share certificates at a future date; the government should talk to issuer and financier representatives on the preferred personality of "recurring" paper share interests and whether a time frame must be enforced for the identification of untraced Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs); andintermediaries should have a responsibility, as a condition of involvement in the clearing and settlement system, to put in place common innovation that allows them to react to UBO requests from providers within an extremely brief time frame.

ANSR July UK PRs

Digitisation would target listed companies with a view to decreasing costs and waste, and improving investor communication. The report proposes additional steps to ensure that UBOs within the intermediated securities chain would be able to work out shareholder rights that are presently just guaranteed for signed up investors, in addition to steps to improve communication between business and UBOs.