This week in Investor Relations

• Tweet

A weekly compilation of news from around the world of investor relations.

IR Service Provider of the Week

Please support our premier directory members. They make this site possible.

Crisis Panel’s Report Parsed Far and Wide
Behind closed doors, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, called it “the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression.” New York Times

SEC Adopts Rules for Say-on-Pay and Golden Parachute Compensation as Required Under Dodd-Frank Act
The new rules specify that say-on-pay votes must occur at least once every three years and companies are required to hold a “frequency” vote at least once every six years. Smaller companies are not required to conduct say-on-pay and frequency votes until annual meetings occurring on or after Jan. 21, 2013. SEC.gov

Regulators Move to Bolster Oversight of Hedge Funds
Financial regulators are planning to collect confidential information from hedge fund managers and other investment advisers, as the government moves to shed more light on the private investment world. DealBook

Davos Man Needs His Image Polishing
Few used-car salesmen are invited to join the business leaders, politicians, do-gooders and celebrities on the annual pilgrimage to the Swiss mountain village of Davos that is the World Economic Forum. More’s the pity—for their presence would probably increase the amount of trust that the public has in Davos Man and Woman. The Economist

American Market Preferred in Global Poll on New Confidence
Global investors are taking more risks with their money and targeting the US as one of the best places to put their funds as they grow increasingly confident in the economic outlook, according to a quarterly Bloomberg Global Poll of 1,000 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers. Bloomberg

‘Mass affluent’ are strapped too, BofA finds
BofA said 29% of those surveyed tapped into their long-term savings last year to pay bills or buy groceries. That depressing finding meshes with a survey released this summer by Fidelity that found nearly a third of parents had tapped into their kids’ college funds to pay daily expenses. Fortune

Shareholder Voting and Corporate Governance Around the World
We document that shareholders are actively voting against the management’s recommendations for non-U.S. firms. The votes against the management’s recommendations are positively and significantly related to Insider control, suggesting that U.S. institutional investors are more likely to oppose management’s recommendations in cases of entrenched management and potential shareholder expropriation. Harvard Law

HFT Makes Up 77% of UK Market
Liquidity providers dominate the UK electronic continuous markets with 77% of the flow, leaving just 23% made up of “natural order flow” from hedge funds and retail and institutional investors. When taking over-the-counter trading into account, HFT still accounts for 35% of the total turnover. Finextra

Russian Firms Seeking $1.86 billion in London IPOs
Russian companies are seeking to raise a combined $1.86 billion from London stock market floats in coming weeks as pent up demand and a revival in Russian equities help swell the IPO pipeline. Reuters

Instinet to Launch Two Dark Pools in Canada
Instinet has begun the regulatory filing process to launch an alternative trading system in Canada’s increasingly crowded trading landscape. Reuters

AIRA Revises Investor Relations Guidelines
AIRA released updated best practice investor relations guidelines to help listed entities comply with tougher new corporate laws. AIRA

King Worldwide Launches New Digital Firm
“KWD brings together all the digital expertise within the King Worldwide group of businesses to provide clients with world leading advice on strategy, research and execution for online corporate communications.” King Worldwide

ADVFN Launches Investor Relations Services
IR departments will be able to prominently display their news on ADVFN’s websites and have their companies included in a default watchlist when new users register on the site. IR Web Report

Five Lessons From the Financial Crisis
The crisis proved to CEOs the importance of IR, capping more than a decade of gradual evolution. ‘In 15 years I’ve seen a dramatic change in the job. Today I’m sitting three or four doors down from Vikram,’ Andrews added. IR Magazine

Survey Results: More on Regulation FD Practices
This new survey supplements two prior surveys that we have conducted on this topic, the last of which was in 2006. TheCorporateCounsel.net

iPads and Tablets Invade the Enterprise
Research from Good Technology, a corporate mobility firm, found that 36% of the iPad activations to date have come from financial institutions. Bank Technology News

Across the Board: Tech Tools for Corporate Directors
New tools are available that make corporate oversight easier and board performance more transparent to shareholders and regulators alike. NYSE Magazine

Writing for the Web: 4 Steps to Becoming a Content Whiz Kid
Sometimes in the midst of churning out material, we forget to take a step back and ensure that we are optimizing our writing for the web – both for the reader AND for search engines. Here are a few quick tips to help you become (or remain) a content whiz kid. Engaging Times

New in IR Web Report’s Services Directory 2.0

zu: Is your IR website creating buzz?
Pristine Advisers: Pristine Advisers LLC is a one stop Investor & Public Relations company offering its customers custom and prepackaged services.
InsuranceIR LLC: Specializing in investor relations for insurance.
Q4 Web Systems: Q4 Web Systems is a leading provider of online investor relations solutions.

List your company

Pam Agnew

Pam Agnew, ABC is a director of IR Web Reporting International Inc. and an award-winning communicator. She has more than 20 years of corporate and agency experience in investor, crisis, corporate, media, stakeholder and sustainability communications on four continents for leading global companies as well as stock exchanges, securities regulators and large institutional investors.