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Research project: transparency of ownership
Aim of the survey
Identification of shareholders is one of the crucial elements of the investor relations process, but little was known about how the regulations and practices compared in different markets. The main objectives of this project were therefore:
  • To compare the information available to companies in different member countries, how they get the information, what it costs and how they use it;
  • To find out if IR professionals feel they need more information about their shareholders in order to do their job efficiently;
  • To ask institutional investors how much ownership information they are prepared to provide to companies, why they are not prepared to provide more and, if they were forced to provide more, what disclosure methods and frequencies they would prefer;
  • To ask both investors and IR professionals if they feel the IIRF should try to influence governments or regulators to improve the information available.
Transparency regulations and systems
A report on transparency regulations and systems by international law firm Simmons & Simmons was presented to the 2004 IIRF international investor relations conference in Rome and can be downloaded from the "Download" menu above.

Investors' and IR professionals' attitudes
Capital Bridge interviewed institutional investors in major markets and helped to conduct a survey via the IIRF website between 2003 and 2005, presenting initial reports at the 2003 IIRF annual conference in Zurich, at a series of national meetings in member countries and at the 2004 conference in Rome. A final report was produced for the 2005 conference in Amsterdam. All of these reports and slide presentations are available via the "Download" facility. The final report is also available here

Next steps
The full results of the project - with the recommendations of the research team - were passed to the IIRF's professional affairs committee, who will discuss them with IIRF member societies and put forward proposals for further action.

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