FRC welcomes FCA consultation on equity listing rule reforms
News types: Corporate Reports, Generic Announcement
Published: 3 May 2023
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) welcomes the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) recently published consultation on Primary Markets Effectiveness , which propose significant reforms to improve the framework for listing commercial companies' equity shares.
The FCA's proposals aim to improve the competitiveness of the UK equity market by creating a more attractive and compelling option for companies considering a share listing in the UK. The proposals include replacing the current standard and premium listing share categories with a single listing category for commercial company issuers of equity shares, retaining the sponsor regime with modifications, and retaining discrete listing categories for other types of instrument.
The FRC and the FCA share a strategic objective to ensure that financial markets function well, and the FRC supports the FCA's aim to rebalance the listing regime and improve the competitiveness of the UK equity market. While the FRC acknowledges that many other factors will determine companies' listing decisions aside from regulation, it encourages a broader debate and collective action by government and market participants to further improve the UK ecosystem for public companies.
Mark Babington, Executive Director of Regulatory Standards at the FRC, said:
The FCA's proposals aim to improve the competitiveness of the UK equity market by creating a more attractive and compelling option for companies considering a share listing in the UK. The proposals include replacing the current standard and premium listing share categories with a single listing category for commercial company issuers of equity shares, retaining the sponsor regime with modifications, and retaining discrete listing categories for other types of instrument.
The FRC and the FCA share a strategic objective to ensure that financial markets function well, and the FRC supports the FCA's aim to rebalance the listing regime and improve the competitiveness of the UK equity market. While the FRC acknowledges that many other factors will determine companies' listing decisions aside from regulation, it encourages a broader debate and collective action by government and market participants to further improve the UK ecosystem for public companies.
Mark Babington, Executive Director of Regulatory Standards at the FRC, said:
"Our corporate governance code is flexible, proportionate and has been shown to meet the needs of investors and these proposals offer the potential to increase the number of companies who would use it to drive high-quality corporate governance and its reporting and improve market confidence. We plan to shortly consult on revisions to that Code, to ensure that it continues to meet those needs."