This event has now taken place but you can watch the video recording of it through our Youtube Channel, get to it by clicking the button below
When
Thursday, May 20th from 6pm to 8pm UK timeWhere
Online symposium via Zoom.Format
There'll be a great line-up of speakers plus ample scope for discussion and debate.Why you should attend
The USA’s Violation Tracker is an incredibly useful and user-friendly database on corporate misconduct. It can be thought of as “An MRI scanner for poor corporate governance” that covers all kinds of corporate infringements in all sectors that have been resolved by federal regulatory agencies and all parts of the Justice Department, since the year 2,000.
In all, a staggering 483,000 civil and criminal cases from more than US 300 agencies with penalties of $667 billion are included. It’s interesting to know that of all the infringements captured by Violation tracker, about half of the total amount of fines, a staggering $331,558,339,161 to be precise, is directly attributable to malpractice, malfeasance, misconduct and mis-selling by the financial services sector!
So, despite the fact that the financial sector ought to be one of the most trusted industries, the reality is sadly very different indeed.
And not only that, it’s also rather worrying for Brits that a British bank is amongst the top 10 worst offenders, in a database that captures infringements against only US authorities:
The good news is that on March 25th, Good Jobs First/Violation Tracker and TTF announced that that funding has been secured for the construction of Violation Tracker UK. That’s great news for everybody that is interested in ESG, corporate governance, infringements by banks and so on.
Violation Tracker UK will combine the records of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Employment Tribunal, the Pensions Regulator, the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Health and Safety Executive, HM Revenue and Customs, the Environment Agency, the Competition and Markets Authority, the Serious Fraud Office and over 40 more UK-based entities, aggregating all their violations data and thereby giving a valuable picture on which companies are breaking the rules.
Its design will resemble the original Violation Tracker, which has attracted a massive global user base and provides about 3 million page views per month.
We believe this is a significant development that will be of enormous benefit to anybody with an interest in corporate governance, ESG, responsible investment, “Building Back Better”, regulatory reform, environmental protection, climate change, the “business round-table multi-stakeholder agenda.” system change, “conscious capitalism” and so on.
As recent UK scandals make clear, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and so on have been central to some of the nation’s biggest scandals. With Violation Tracker, all stakeholders including the public at large will have sight of corporate infringements data going back 10 years.
Violation Tracker will enable us to face up to and assess the wrongdoing, indeed criminality that has taken place in the UK; and thereby help us to drive the positive, progressive and purposeful reforms that are so desperately needed.
Our Violation Tracker initiative chimes perfectly with the famous James Baldwin quotation:
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
This symposium will showcase Violation Tracker and the powerful data it provides, helping everybody to understand how it can shine a bright light on what’s been in the shadows, hidden from view; until now.
It will also help everybody understand why so many people are highly supportive of this development.
Here's the programme and timings so far...
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Welcome to the symposium, introductions and initial exploration of the main issues; by
Andy Agathangelou
Founder, Transparency Task Force; Governor, Pensions Policy Institute; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Pension Scams; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Personal Banking and Fairer Financial Services; Chair of the Violation Tracker UK Advisory Board
—————————————-6:20pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #1, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes discussion/Q&A
Phil Mattera
Research Director and Director of the Corporate Research Project, Good Jobs First
—————————————-6:35pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #2, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Stuart Woollard
Managing Partner, OMS LLP
—————————————-6:50pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #3, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Brian Basham
Chairman, Equity Development
—————————————-7:05pm BST—————————————-
The “Just a minute”-round
Inspired by the BBC Radio 4 programme, we have asked a selection of our attendees to spend just a minute sharing their thoughts on what has been covered during the symposium. But unlike the Radio 4 programme our speakers won’t be penalised for hesitation, repetition or deviation!
Speakers:
Peter Young
Trustee, Green Purpose Company
—————————————-7:30pm BST—————————————-
General discussion and debate, 25 minutes
—————————————-7:55pm BST—————————————-
Final conclusions; and suggested next steps and close to the formal proceedings.
However, for those that want it…
8:00pm BST until 108:30pm BST
….informal, unstructured networking and informal conversation; a “fireside chat”
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*The programme will continuously evolve so is subject to change.
Phil Mattera
Research Director, Good Jobs First
Phil has been doing strategic corporate research for labor, environmental, public-interest and other activist groups around the U.S. for three decades. Before that he worked as a business journalist. He is a licensed private investigator and author of four books on business, labor and economics. His blog on corporate research and corporate misbehavior is the Dirt Diggers Digest. He has written more than 70 critical company profiles for the Corporate Rap Sheets section of the Corporate Research Project website. He leads the work on Violation Tracker.
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Stuart Woollard
Managing Partner, OMS LLP
Stuart Woollard is Managing Partner of Organizational Maturity Services LLP and co-founder and Council member at the Maturity Institute (MI).
Stuart co-created OMINDEX® (Organisational Maturity Index) and leads pioneering work with the investment community to integrate ‘intangibles’ (e.g. corporate culture, governance, human capital, and management systems) into investment decision-making, engagement and stewardship activities.
Stuart also advises business leaders on whole, human system diagnosis of organisational health using OMINDEX®. He has published research on human capital in international mergers and acquisitions, on the management of people in global contexts and has co-authored a book “The Mature Corporation – a Model of Responsible Capitalism” (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019).
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Brian Basham
Chairman, Equity Development
Brian is a serial ‘start-up’ entrepreneur. He founded and floated The Broad Street Group, which he established after an early career as a financial journalist with the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and The Times. He left The Times to investigate the relationship between organised crime and the City. He became an accredited fund manger as cover for his investigation.
Broad Street specialised in takeover bid communication strategies. It became the ‘go to’ agency both in the UK and the US. It transformed financial public relations and was floated in 1986.
Brian then founded Primrose Care, caring for elderly people in their own homes, it was later sold to BUPA.
He founded Equity Development 25 years ago. It provided research services to smaller companies. He recently sold ED.
Brian also founded ArchOver, which is a unique crowdfunding marketplace lender, facilitating secured and insured loans to companies. It was sold to Hampden Group
He was one of three founders of the Quoted Companies Alliance, he initiated a report for Treasury on Smaller Quoted Companies and wrote the well regarded publication Tomorrow’s Giants, with the former senior Treasury official Craig Pickering.
Brian’s charitable activities include re-establishing Remembrance in the UK in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of World War II. The initiative enabled the Royal British Legion to raise £20m in that year, saving it from probable dissolution. Remembrance, once again, has become a regular feature of British life. He conceived the appeal Coming Home to raise funds for seriously wounded military personnel, which also raised £20m. He stimulated the reactivation of the British Dyslexia Association and has run two marathons to raise funds for Prostate Cancer research.
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