Don’t turn up! Big firms bar investors from AGMs

Great to read this article from Patrick Tooher in today’s Daily Mail addressing this important topic (which also kindly quoted me).

You can read the article online: Don’t turn up! Big firms bar investors from AGMs

Limiting the ability for shareholders and members to hold boards to account via online-only (and thus often highly stage-managed) AGMs is bad for governance, and the Financial Reporting Council good practice guide questions the legitimacy i.e. does the definition of “place” include some corner of the internet?

A number of organisations have used the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic to eliminate the in-person AGM. The argument that virtual-only is more cost effective and convenient for (some) people ignores the potential for Digital Exclusion, but perhaps more significantly, they restrict the opportunity for unfiltered scrutiny and challenge. If organisations were truly focused on convenience and interested in increasing attendance, they would hold hybrid meetings at more suitable times.

It’s one of my concerns with regards to Nationwide Building Society. For an organisation that prides itself on fairness, and being member-owned, a virtual-only AGM held mid-morning on a Wednesday in the middle of the summer holidays is a strange choice.

Only 300 people attended last year, down from in person AGMs in the early 2000s that attracted multiples of that amount. 300 people is less than 0.002% of the 16 million members. If Nationwide can organise hybrid voting, why can’t it organise an hybrid meeting?