Shareholder after the Crisis

Abstract:     
Shareholders call for more attention after the crisis: confidence will have to be restored to convince them to recapitalise the financial firms. Five topics are addressed here: shareholders should be able to effectively exercise their rights, especially their voting rights. They should be protected against being sidelined by empty voters. Long termism is called for by calling on more stable, active institutional shareholders, an objective that may be at odds with “one share, one vote”. Finally, also the state rescuing financial institutes should not intervene without paying any attention to the shareholders’ rights.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: Shareholders, voting rights, empty voting, one share, one vote, institutional investors, resolution schemes

JEL Classification: K22, K23

working papers series