Educating investors

The man leading the UK's only body dedicated to the interests of private shareholders will be speaking at Tanaka Business School on 15 November in a session open to all students.

The importance of shareholders effectively holding companies to account is offered up as a ‘lesson learnt’ following most corporate scandals.  Despite frequent repetition of this point from investigators, the problem persists. 

An October PwC study revealed that bribery and corruption is the fastest-growing economic crime effecting UK firms.  Nearly a third of UK companies believe they had been the victims of bribery or corruption though misappropriation and accounting fraud.

Offering his professional view on how to improve this situation will be Martin White, chairman of the UK Shareholders Association (UKSA) at the 15 November event.  He will explain essential elements of business governance: ethics and accountability.

The session will offer students a unique opportunity to get more involved in helping individual investors better understand corporate finances.  This will be done working through interesting real life examples related to accounting issues and develop a richer understanding of private shareholders’ issues. 

During the session students will also be given practical information on how to improve their own investment decision making.  Both of these points are essential skills for modern business people who may have to respond to Shareholder Action Committees in their careers.

Karim Abadir, head of the Finance and Accounting Group said: “The session is a rare and special opportunity for our students.  Given our MSc Finance programme recently achieved CFA Institute Partner Programme status, this focus on ethics in financial matters makes a lot of sense for the School.”

Martin will be joined by a few UKSA colleagues who will be available to talk to attendees informally following the session.

The UKSA was set up in 1992 to help all private shareholders carry out their ownership responsibilities more effectively and to monitor the rules governing the trading and owning of shares.  Its work falls into three areas: Protecting the rights of individual shareholders, improving standards of corporate governance and ensuring a fair market and fair tax treatment for private investors.

Ends

Details:

Where: LGS

When: 18.00 to 19.00 on Thursday 15 November

Booking: School students and staff are welcome to join the presentation without reserving a place

Details on the UKSA can be found here.