The 2017 annual report of Amec – the Association of Capital Market Investors - is now live. Despite the political and economic setbacks the country has suffered, the association’s efforts have borne fruit. In 2017, four new firms jointed Amec. Porto Seguro, BNDESPar, Joule Asset Management, and Tagus joined the association’s member group that today totals 59 institutional investors with approximately $600 billion reais under management. Additionally, the Amec Stewardship Code closed the year with 16 signatories, among which pension funds, demonstrating the engagement and interest of institutional investors in exercising their fiduciary duties.

Amec’s members were taken by surprise at the decision of the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission – CVM – about the impossibility of the regulator to start proceedings against the chair of the general meeting. In Amec’s opinion, by delegating the power to supervise and punish possible abuses exclusively to the Judiciary, the CVM fails to protect minority shareholders, who are eventually relegated to their own fate – and subject to abusive conducts of controlling shareholders’ representatives, who will henceforth be outside the scope of coercive measures that could be imposed by the regulator.

The CODIM (the Guidance Committee for the Disclosure of Information to the Market) released the Statement about the Participation of Shareholders at General Meetings in the auditorium of B3 (Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão) in São Paulo (SP) on March 14, 2018, at 11 am.

The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission – CVM – has made a number of enhancements after the “Institutional investors and SEP’s supervision” roundtable. In the meeting held last year, the Office of the Superintendent of Corporate Relations – SEP – questioned guest investors about the tools used to improve the companies’ governance practices and described how CVM has been helping the market perform the task. The debate has given rise to a number of explanations, most of them included in the Official Letter published by SEP in February.

The International Accounting Standards Board (Board) is seeking participants for a new consultative group that will advise the Board on its project to update IFRS Practice Statement 1 Management Commentary (Practice Statement).

Amec participated in the “Shareholders’ Meeting: The organization of AGMs” workshop, organized by the Brazilian Institute of Investors Relations – Ibri – and the law firm Cescon, Barrieu, Flesch & Barreto Advogados. The event, held on March 21 and 23 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively, introduced the main topics about the organization of Annual General Meetings.

“Proposals for the improvement of the capital market” will be the theme of the 2018 Amec Investors Forum. The main event of the Association of Capital Market Investors – Amec – will be held on August 22, at Casa Bisutti, Vila Olímpia, São Paulo – SP.

The Ministry of Finance and the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission – CVM – created a working group to “study and recommend measures to enhance mechanisms to protect investors and minority shareholders.” The administrative rule, signed by the Minister of Finance Eduardo Refinetti Guardia, and by CVM’s Chairman Marcelo Barbosa, was published in the Federal Official Gazette (DOU) on April 11.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC), responsible for setting accounting and auditing standards in the United Kingdom, has announced plans to enhance its monitoring of the “big six audit firms.” According to the FRC, the objective is to mitigate systematic deficiencies as the country’s largest audit firms are important institutions within a global audit firm network.

Amec – the Association of Capital Market Investors – organized a breakfast meeting with professionals from pension funds engaged in investment activities – mainly equities, in Santa Catarina, on April 6. The objective was to encourage a dialogue about Amec’s agenda, which includes issues related to minority shareholder rights, regulations, development of the capital market and prospects for 2018.

On April 6, Amec CEO Mauro Rodrigues da Cunha delivered a speech in the city of Florianópolis, state of Santa Catarina, about the Amec Stewardship Code and the Brazilian Code of Best Practices of Corporate Governance.