How Corporate Management Redefines Global Strategy

As an outcome of the intro of the UKLR sourcebook in July 2024, both the London Stock Market (LSE) and FTSE Russell made substantial changes to their guidelines. In July 2024, the LSE validated amendments to its Admission and Disclosure Standards to reflect the collapse of the previous premium and basic listing segments into the new industrial business category.

, chaired by Charlie Geffen. The goal of the taskforce was to consider the prospective benefits of the UK moving to a T +1 securities settlement cycle and describe how this modification could be implemented.

On 19 February 2025, the UK federal government announced it accepted the suggestion and the UK market intends to move to a T +1 settlement cycle on 11 October 2027. One of the recommendations from the UK Secondary Capital Raising Evaluation led to the establishment in July 2022 of the Digitisation Taskforce, chaired by Sir Douglas Flint.

Top Banking Insights for UK Growth

In July 2023, the taskforce published an Interim Report (read our summary here) that made a number of suggestions, including: legislation must be brought forward, and company posts of association altered, as soon as practicable to stop the issuance of new paper share certificates; the government needs to bring forward legislation to need dematerialisation of all share certificates at a future date; the government should seek advice from with company and investor representatives on the favored disposition of "recurring" paper share interests and whether a time limit must be imposed for the identification of untraced Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs); andintermediaries ought to have a responsibility, as a condition of involvement in the cleaning and settlement system, to put in location typical technology that allows them to respond to UBO demands from issuers within a very short time frame.

ANSR July UK PRs

Digitisation would target listed business with a view to minimizing costs and waste, and streamlining shareholder communication. The report proposes extra measures to ensure that UBOs within the intermediated securities chain would have the ability to exercise shareholder rights that are currently just guaranteed for registered shareholders, as well as measures to improve interaction between business and UBOs.