ANTI-CORPORADO ACTIVISM GROWING
G. JEFFREY MACDONALD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Columbia University
freshman Nick Serpe doesn't own any stocks or mutual funds, but that
minor point isn't keeping him from becoming a shareholder activist.
"The tuition we pay is going to the university endowment, so we do
consider ourselves shareholders," says Mr. Serpe, who had never heard of
shareholder activism six months ago. Together with other students, he's
now calling on Columbia to use its clout as a big Chevron stockholder to
solicit a report that would address, among other things, pollution
caused by nearly three decades of oil drilling in Ecuador.
As winter winds down, activists of varied stripes are gearing up for a
new spring season of shareholder meetings by linking up with allies and
upgrading their approaches. They're tapping into new networks, formed in
the past three years, to rally grass-roots investors behind various
causes. They're also reaping the benefits of new disclosure requirements
intended to demystify mountains of paperwork and legalese that have
traditionally enshrouded the inner workings of corporate boards.
In the big picture, observers say, a multiyear trend toward holding
management accountable is to some degree trickling down to strengthen
the hand of those who actually own public companies: their shareholders.
Corporate scandals in 2002 and 2003 led not only to the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act, which tightened financial reporting requirements, but also to
today's environment where investors can more easily make their voices
heard.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/top/~3/95901696/p13s01-wmgn.html
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ILLEGAL FEES COULD COST BRITISH BANKS BILLIONS
SAEED SHAH, INDEPENDENT, UK - Banks could be forced to refund L7.2bn
worth of illegal penalty fees they have levied from customers, according
to City analysts, if regulators rule against the charges. In the first
authoritative study of the charges, banking analysts at Credit Suisse
have calculated that high street banks rake in L1.2bn a year from
penalty charges. The news will fuel a customer revolt that has taken the
banking sector by storm.
Under consumer law, customers are entitled to claim retrospective
refunds going back six years if banks are judged to have imposed
illegitimate charges on their accounts. . . Since The Independent
started its campaign last week, more than 400,000 people have downloaded
online guides to complain about bank charges, which are levied on
services such as unauthorised overdrafts and bounced cheques. Thousands
of customers have already won compensation from their banks, with awards
ranging to L70 to thousands of pounds.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2305507.ece
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G. JEFFREY MACDONALD, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Columbia University
freshman Nick Serpe doesn't own any stocks or mutual funds, but that
minor point isn't keeping him from becoming a shareholder activist.
"The tuition we pay is going to the university endowment, so we do
consider ourselves shareholders," says Mr. Serpe, who had never heard of
shareholder activism six months ago. Together with other students, he's
now calling on Columbia to use its clout as a big Chevron stockholder to
solicit a report that would address, among other things, pollution
caused by nearly three decades of oil drilling in Ecuador.
As winter winds down, activists of varied stripes are gearing up for a
new spring season of shareholder meetings by linking up with allies and
upgrading their approaches. They're tapping into new networks, formed in
the past three years, to rally grass-roots investors behind various
causes. They're also reaping the benefits of new disclosure requirements
intended to demystify mountains of paperwork and legalese that have
traditionally enshrouded the inner workings of corporate boards.
In the big picture, observers say, a multiyear trend toward holding
management accountable is to some degree trickling down to strengthen
the hand of those who actually own public companies: their shareholders.
Corporate scandals in 2002 and 2003 led not only to the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act, which tightened financial reporting requirements, but also to
today's environment where investors can more easily make their voices
heard.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/top/~3/95901696/p13s01-wmgn.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ILLEGAL FEES COULD COST BRITISH BANKS BILLIONS
SAEED SHAH, INDEPENDENT, UK - Banks could be forced to refund L7.2bn
worth of illegal penalty fees they have levied from customers, according
to City analysts, if regulators rule against the charges. In the first
authoritative study of the charges, banking analysts at Credit Suisse
have calculated that high street banks rake in L1.2bn a year from
penalty charges. The news will fuel a customer revolt that has taken the
banking sector by storm.
Under consumer law, customers are entitled to claim retrospective
refunds going back six years if banks are judged to have imposed
illegitimate charges on their accounts. . . Since The Independent
started its campaign last week, more than 400,000 people have downloaded
online guides to complain about bank charges, which are levied on
services such as unauthorised overdrafts and bounced cheques. Thousands
of customers have already won compensation from their banks, with awards
ranging to L70 to thousands of pounds.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2305507.ece
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