The Government has issued three public consultations covering these subjects:
- Improving the quality and value of financial information on the UK companies register.
- Enhancing the powers of the registrar.
- Implementing the ban on corporate directors.
These follow on from a previous consultation entitled “Corporate Transparency and Register Reform” which contained proposals to reduce fraud and improve transparency, and which I reported on here: https://roliscon.blog/2019/05/11/changes-proposed-at-companies-house/ and you can see my response to that consultation here: https://www.roliscon.com/Corporate-Transparency-and-Register-Reform.pdf
The latest consultations can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-consultations-to-crack-down-on-company-fraud-and-improve-corporate-transparency
These proposed changes will certainly improve the quality of information on the Companies House Register and in general should be welcomed, but they will impose more obligations on smaller companies. The consultations may be of particular interest to company directors and those who file information with Companies House such as accountants and company secretaries. But they ask a lot of questions, so perhaps best to review and respond to these consultations over Xmas. There are easy on-line questionnaires to which you can respond.
Banning Short Selling
There was an interesting article in the Financial Times on short selling yesterday. It reported that South Korea is to attack those who bet against companies by short selling and is threatening jail and hefty fines. They are particularly concerned about “naked” short selling where stock is sold when not owned (e.g. rather than by borrowing it first), but they have also extended a ban on all short selling. Similar bans are in place in Malaysia and Indonesia.
The intention appears to be to halt speculative trading. Is it wise to do so? My view is that short selling as such can assist markets to identify a realistic price on stocks, but the problem is that it can also be associated with abusive practices where those doing so do not just keep their opinions to themselves but broadcast negative comments on a stock. Those comments can be sometimes fair and accurate but at other times they are not. It is very difficult for companies to respond to such comments and get them corrected or removed.
Of course one can argue that this sometimes happens in reverse, i.e. stocks are promoted by puffs or ramping to drive the price higher. Company directors themselves can be the source of such activity. The real issue is about media regulation where in the modern world both positive and negative commentary can be widely promoted on the internet without any regulation whatsoever.
That is the problem that needs tackling in essence, and banning short selling is at best a temporary measure that does not attack the underlying issue and in particular the excessive speculation that can take place in stock markets.
Naked short selling might reasonably be banned though on the principle that nobody should be trading shares in which they do not have a financial interest. At least if they have a long holding, they may take the interest of the company into account. But if they have a short holding, their interest may be solely in damaging the company.
It is a long-standing principle of insurance that you cannot insure something in which you do not have an interest – for example someone else’s life unless you might suffer financial loss as a result of their death. Why? Because it is widely acknowledged it could lead to abuse, or in the case of life insurance that death might be hastened! You have to have an insurable interest to obtain insurance. That I suggest is a good principle to follow on share trading.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
You can “follow” this blog by clicking on the bottom right in most browsers or by using the Contact page to send us a message requesting. You will then receive an email alerting you to new posts as they are added.
© Copyright. Disclaimer: Read the About page before relying on any information in this post.