The United Kingdom’s pending exit from the European Union has been a cause of extreme uncertainty, both geopolitically and economically. Given the potential magnitude of the event, and considering London’s place as a center of global finance and industry, there … Continue reading
Author Archives: Alicia Ritter
Auditor Changes in the FTSE 100
An average of 11% of FTSE 100 companies have changed their auditor every year since 2014. Looking at the engaged effective date of the auditor changes, we found a consistent trend in the number of changes per year: In the … Continue reading
Auditor Tenure among Nordic Indices
In this post, we look at the longest auditor tenures of the companies in the top Nordic indices. This includes a review of 136 companies, with only one having a joint audit. As shown in the graph below, eight of … Continue reading
Non-Audit Services Fee Cap: How Would U.S. Companies Measure Up?
In the new audit reform published last year by the EU Commission, one of the interesting stipulations includes a cap on fees for permitted non-audit services (NAS). Going forward, fees for non-audit services cannot exceed 70% of the average of … Continue reading
The Problem With Pledging, Part II
We recently wrote about the perils of directors and officers pledging shares in their own company. We highlighted some examples and discussed possible ramifications. In this post, we will take a deeper dive into some of the data we’ve compiled with respect … Continue reading
The Problem with Pledging
Last fall, at its annual meeting, FedEx (NYSE: FDX) shareholders and the Board of Directors debated the issue of pledging. FedEx policy prohibits share pledging, but allows the company’s general counsel to grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis. A sole but … Continue reading