• Excessive over-regulation of boards (and more particularly the insistence on the inclusion of non-executive directors on public boards) is to blame for the fall in the number of companies going public? 

• Goldman Sachs to push for board diversity?  The FT reports that Goldman Sachs has said it will not take companies public in the US or Europe unless their boards include one 'diverse' board member
• In Brief | Reportedly, the Financial Conduct Authority will consider the extent to which diversity, and the extent to which it is reflected in a firm's culture, when assessing the culture of advice firms 

• Davos update | The majority of CEOs at the International Business Council Meeting expressed support for aligning executive pay with ESG criteria 

• Top Story | Accountability is the headline issue: Key trends to emerge from the 2016-2019 AGM seasons

• Stepping up engagement:  The ACCR has outlined plans to step up its engagement with certain companies on climate related issues in 2020

• United Kingdom | Trustees of the FCA pension plan have reportedly been fined by the pension regulator for inadequate disclosure

• In Brief | The UK FCA has announced that current FCA Executive Director of Strategy and Competition Christopher Woolard, has been appointed as the successor to Andrew Bailey as CEO on an interim basis.  HM Treasury will be running an open competition for the permanent CEO.   The FCA says that further details will be announced in due course

• The proposed new Financial Accountability Regime: new minimum standards for entities, boards and senior management across the economy?
• Interest rate benchmark reform update: RBNZ has announced its support for the selection of the Official Cash Rate (OCR) as NZ's fall back benchmark interest rate
• Four week consultation on stamping fee exemption announced
• Federal Labor is open to backing super choice bill? 
• Draft buy now pay later code expected to be released this week for consultation? 
• Inquiry into the future direction of the Consumer Data Right announced
• In Brief | Westpac has appointed John McFarlane to the Westpac board as a non-executive director and Chair-elect.  Mr McFarlane will succeed outgoing Chair Lindsay Maxsted on 2 April 2020 

• In Brief | ASIC needs to lift its audit capability? The Australian reports that private submissions to the Financial Reporting Council in 2017, from Australia's biggest accounting firms, blamed ASIC's poor assessment of the sector's audit quality on lack of sufficiently skilled and professional ASIC investigators.  The Australian comments that similar concerns were not made by the big four firms in their public submissions to the current parliamentary joint committee into the regulation of the audit sector

• In Brief | The FRC is consulting on proposed changes to International Standard on Auditing (UK) (ISA (UK) 315 (Revised June 2016): Identifying and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement Through Understanding the Entity and Its Environment, to reflect recent revisions to the international standards on auditing issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.  Consultation closes on 3 April

Technology, Privacy and Cybersecurity

• Top Story | First international privacy standard released
• United Kingdom | Internet of things (IoT) law? The UK government has announced it plans to enact legislation to improve the security standards of internet-connected household devices sold in the UK

Climate risk

• A signal of things to come? UK pension fund sets 2022 target for the companies in which it invests to align their emissions with 'Paris benchmarks and improve their climate management quality'
• Will BP adopt broader carbon emissions reductions goals, including scope 3 emissions?  Reportedly incoming CEO Bernard Looney is considering this course
• The time is right for the government to act on climate?  Climate risks are already starting to 'materialise' in Australia
• In Brief | The FT reports that the 'big four accounting groups' as well as some of the world's largest companies have signed up to a new sustainability reporting framework launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  According to The FT, the metrics, created by the WEF’s International Business Council (IBC), are intended to be deployed in corporate accounts from 2021

Other developments

• Employee activism on the rise at technology companies? The FT reports that more than a group of Amazon employees have publicly criticised the company's climate change record 
• In Brief | Evidence that ethics training is effective in raising behavioural standards? A US study has confirmed that testing financial advisers on their knowledge of ethics can lead to better behaviour
• In Brief | Future Fund chair Peter Costello has reportedly identified coronavirus as a bigger short-term financial risk than climate change. 'It [climate risk] is a risk that we look at, but it's not the only risk' Mr Costello reportedly said.   Mr Costello reportedly went on to say that 'longer term, obviously we think there is going to be a switch away from fossil fuels, and we take that into account, as all investors should'

• United States | US regulator holds individual former Wells Fargo executives to account: The OCC has announced enforcement actions against eight former Wells Fargo executives