As I sit and peruse possible topics for blogging about, I am struck by two different but somehow similar news stories. The first is that Ofcom has stated that Jeremy Clarkson’s remarks about shooting trade unionists was not in breach of broadcasting rules, and the second is that several senior Lloyds executives who took large bonuses at a time when Lloyds was mis-selling its PPI products should have to pay some of their bonuses back.

What’s the connection between Clarkson and Lloyds? Well both are top trending news stories today, and both are based on misdemeanors and the ensuing consequences – crime and punishment you might say. Both today also reached some kind of closure.

And both of these misdemeanors have been played out in the court of public opinion, which I have blogged about before. In my view both misdemeanors have been appropriately dealt with – and I believe that the outcomes will also satisfy the aforementioned court of public opinion – somewhat of a sea change compared with many current ‘rulings’ and ‘findings’ which create very juicy fodder for the court’s herald (also known as the red-tops).

As a result of the rulings Clarkson may have to spend a day with a healthcare assistant, after Unison who had officially complained to Ofcom, accepted his apology and offered him this day’s work experience to help him balance his views in regards to public sector workers’ lot in life. Good for them – an entirely appropriate response.

Hence a silly outspoken comment is complained about, investigated and then punished proportionately. No broadcasting guidelines have been breached. Phew! The world has not gone mad.

The second misdemeanor, misappropriating funds from customers via a mis-selling scandal is also dealt what I believe to be a proportionate ‘punishment’ with the removal of bonuses from 13 executives, including former chief executive Eric Daniels, who loses a reported 40% of his 2010 bonus.

This is fair because not only does it send a message to Lloyds’ customers that this was unacceptable, but the whole mis-selling scandal (of which Lloyds is most definitely not the only offender) has cost the bank a lot of money. It has had to put over £3 billion aside to cover compensation liabilities.

This announcement comes a couple of weeks after Stephen Hester was pretty much forced to not accept his bonus at RBS – which is another whole can of worms, but again one where public opinion seemed to sway the outcome. Reputation management is entering a whole new paradigm of importance.

The IMS Group (IMS), a leading global governance, risk and compliance services group has acquired all outstanding shares in the New York based subsidiary of the same name, IMS Consulting US (IMS US). This is the second acquisition this year of a US compliance company for The IMS Group which last month invested in HedgeOp Compliance (HedgeOp), the leading US provider of specialised compliance software and consulting services for investment advisers.

IMS US, founded and managed by Micah Taylor, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of IMS. Taylor and his team will retain their current roles and will continue to serve both US and global clients who will now benefit from being an integrated part of the global IMS family with a much larger US product platform including the ability to use EvenWheel compliance software, the HedgeOp developed compliance management and employee level filing solutions.

Michel van Leeuwen, Chief Executive, The IMS Group, says:
“We see this as a consolidation of the groups’ interests in the US, where we have recently acquired HedgeOp. We continue to search out quality businesses globally to become part of the IMS Group, with a current focus on the US given the increase in regulation in the region.”

Micah Taylor, The IMS Group, says:
“The move to become a wholly owned subsidiary of IMS was the next logical step in the progression of our business, and we look forward to demonstrating all of the benefits  the expanded group has to offer to our clients”.

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For media enquiries:
Louise Yates
Marketing and Communications Director
The IMS Group
+44 (0)20 7408 2448
louise.yates@theimsgroup.co.uk

Emma Murphy/Lauren Willington
Broadgate Mainland
+44 (0) 20 7726 6111
ims@broadgatemainland.com

About The IMS Group
The IMS Group is a professional financial services group for the asset management and securities industry. IMS’ core service offering is regulatory compliance consulting to UK and US regulated financial services firms with offices in London, New York, Boston and San Francisco.  IMS also provides related services including hosted regulatory permissions, due diligence, compliance training, risk management and recruitment. IMS supports more than 700 investment businesses, ranging from established global firms to start-ups.  Its clients include many of the world’s largest hedge fund managers, private equity firms, fund of funds managers, family offices and institutional pension fund managers.

Barclays plc completed a UK corporate first last Friday when the first page of its annual financial results was headlined ’citizenship’ and did not mention profits or dividends.

The report highlighted how Barclays contributes to growth in the real economy, what it does for charity, and how it treats customers.

Barclays citizenship highlights included a 30% reduction in banking complaints and improved customer service. It also proudly said that the company paid total tax globally (directly and indirectly) of £6.4bn, including £2.9bn in the UK, shaming several of high street neighbours, and putting to rest some contentious headlines of its own concerning corporation tax payments in 2009.

Corporate citizenship is one of several phrases used by companies to describe their efforts to improve the state of the world. It is the latest term used by a growing number of companies following worthier terms such as ‘corporate social responsibility’. Nowadays it has become de rigueur for any business that wants to be in good standing with the public to be able to describe its various good works, although some companies take this a lot more seriously than others.

The financial services sector, widely maligned for tipping the world economy into recession, has been at the forefront of companies investing significant resources and finance into social improvement programmes as it tries to restore its battered reputation.

But major global brands have to work harder to close the gap between their performance in the marketplace and their citizenship, according to a quartet of leading international marketing firms, which launched a Global Corporate Reputation Index based on consumer 40,000 interviews and a study of 6,000 companies, at this year’s Davos forum.

Their analysis shows that good reputations are built over time and many of the companies who rate highest in the index are those that have the longest histories. In fact 20 of the top 25 companies were founded before 1950 and have an average age of over 85 years, with the oldest tracing its roots back to 1865.

Technology companies performed the best with oil companies and banks unsurprisingly at the foot of the table. The top companies continue to show significant gaps between their performance and citizenship scores suggesting there is still scope for improvement

All these efforts to be a good corporate citizen are not completely altruistic. Research from management consultancies and business schools around the world confirms that businesses which invest in their citizenship receive a better return on investment.

Greater scrutiny of corporate citizenship is set to increase as access to company information becomes easier via digital and social media. In addition, as it becomes increasingly hard to differentiate between product and service providers, citizenship will begin to rank alongside price as a major factor in buying decisions.

Already we have seen the rise of social entrepreneurs who create a social or environmental value alongside profit. They inhabit nearly every sector of the economy, from banking and insurance to energy and manufacturing. While most of these entrepreneurs fall into the SME category there is a widespread expectation that within the next 10 years the concept will gain significant traction with several multi-million pound businesses demonstrating real success.

While the move by Barclays to highlight its social credentials in advance of its financial performance may seem unusual, it signals a trend which other major corporations are sure to follow. Good corporate citizenship is no longer an option, it’s vital for success.

I do tweet but I’m not a premier league footballer who has just been exposed by a red top for nocturnal activity on the Korean leg of a recent Asian tour or a celebrity cougar having fun parading her latest bare-chest, lion-tamer-style, on a hot tropical beach.   Well, that’s pretty obvious, but faced with the odds already stacked against me and faced with competition from another 200 million tweets every day, how can I possibly appear ‘engaging’ – and get noticed?

Twitter pressure is a nasty affliction. The left part of your brain says who cares and the right part bites back in disagreement. It’s not just the status or the messaging but the identity dilemma. Does your feed really reflect who you are? No, it’s a crafted and fake identity to suit the needs of your online persona. Well, that’s it then. I’m living in a straight-jacket.

Whilst it may be difficult to solve some of these 21^st century digital dilemmas, the good news is that helpful Ph.D researchers in the United States have created a list of nine golden rules for Twitter users to follow when they tweet after research found that almost two-thirds of tweets bored those who read them.

People who visited a purpose-built website “Who Gives a Tweet?” which was set up to rate tweets were promised feedback on their tweets if they agreed to anonymously rate tweets by Twitter users they already follow. Over a period of 19 days in late 2010 and early 2011, 1,443 visitors to the site rated 43,738 tweets from the accounts of 21,014 Twitter users they followed.

Overall, the readers liked just 36 per cent of the tweets and disliked 25 per cent. Another 39 per cent elicited no strong opinion. The conclusion from one of the researchers was “a well-received tweet is not all that common”. Well, that’s good to hear – one is not alone.

So, let’s put the Twitter pressure away in the mental filing cabinet and adopt their nine-point plan for Twitter success. Here it is:

• Old news is no news: Twitter emphasises real-time information. Followers quickly get bored of even relatively fresh links seen multiple times.
• Contribute to the story: Add an opinion, a pertinent fact or add to the conversation before hitting “send” on a link or a retweet.
• Keep it short: Followers appreciate conciseness. Using as few characters as possible also leaves room for longer, more satisfying comments on retweets.
• Limit Twitter-specific syntax: Overuse of #hashtags, @mentions and abbreviations makes tweets hard to read. But some syntax is helpful; if posing a question, adding a hashtag helps everyone follow along.
• Keep it to yourself: The cliched “sandwich” tweets about pedestrian, personal details were largely disliked. Reviewers reserved a special hatred for Foursquare location check-ins.
• Provide context: Tweets that are too short leave readers unable to understand their meaning. Simply linking to a blog or photo, without giving a reason to click on it, was “lame.”
• Don’t whine: Negative sentiments and complaints were disliked.
• Be a tease: News or professional organizations that want readers to click on their links need to hook them, not give away all of the news in the tweet itself.
• For public figures: People often follow you to read professional insights and can be put off by personal gossip or everyday details.

So there it is – it is simple. They are useful tips for those who are wondering if they are hitting the right tone on Twitter. Digital technologies and social media have created a fundamental shift in the way we consumer and use news. One big change is that we have become more active participants in the news process and that creates big judgements and therefore expectations on how good we are at it.

While most of us are not well-known celebrities, conforming to a few guidelines like the ones above can help you navigate this new world. Whether today’s Twitter news is tomorrow’s chip paper is a whole other debate.

Nick Salter has been appointed Senior Partner at Barnett Waddingham, the UK’s largest independent firm of actuaries, administrators and consultants.

Adrian Waddingham, who has held the position for the last six years, will step down on 31 May 2012 but will remain a partner in the firm, continue to advise his existing clients and retain a seat on the firm’s Management Board.

Nick Salter is a senior figure in the industry and one of the founding partners of Barnett Waddingham which was established in 1989. As a member of the firm’s Management Board, he has been closely involved in the development of the firm, which now has an annual turnover of more than £45 million.

Adrian Waddingham, said: “The growth at Barnett Waddingham has been a team effort. Nick has been a key figure in the firm’s development and his appointment is an important step in the next phase of our firm’s expansion and we are fortunate to have someone of his calibre to take up this important role.”

Nick Salter, said: “Barnett Waddingham has thrived under Adrian’s leadership, I have been fortunate to work with him for over 22 years now and I am delighted that he will remain a partner so that we can continue to benefit from his wise counsel. I am very excited about the future of the business and look forward to working with my fellow Partners and all our fantastic staff  to maintain the unique culture of the firm and to continue offering our clients the quality of care, service and innovative advice that underpins everything we do.”

For further information please contact:

Mark Knight or Emma Murphy, Broadgate Mainland, 0207 726 6111

Barnett Waddingham, the UK’s largest independent firm of actuaries, administrators and consultants, is urging people with large pension savings to review their arrangements as soon as possible to avoid any complications in meeting HMRC’s Fixed Protection deadline of 6 April 2012.

The standard lifetime allowance (LTA) for defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pensions is £1.8m for the 2011/12 tax year, but will reduce to £1.5m with effect from 6 April 2012.  Individuals can, however, apply for Fixed Protection to maintain the higher amount. The main condition for Fixed Protection is to cease all further pension accrual and contributions.

Typical candidates who could benefit from Fixed Protection are those relatively close to retirement, or anyone who believes the HMRC’s value of their existing pension provision might exceed £1.5m at retirement.

Bhargaw Buddhdev, a partner at Barnett Waddingham who advises on pension arrangements for senior executives, says: “This is the last opportunity for high earners to protect the value of their pensions and prompt action is required to review arrangements and take any necessary action”.

Individuals who have already started drawing a pension, but have further benefits to bring into payment later, must not overlook the impact of the reduction in LTA on their remaining benefits.

Applications for Fixed Protection need to be made to HMRC using a specified application form. The form cannot be submitted online – it must be printed, completed and posted to HMRC and received by them before 5 April 2012.  This makes early preparation critical.

Without Fixed Protection the maximum tax free cash would reduce from the current maximum of £450,000 to the new maximum of £375,000 and this means that it is important to consider the position carefully in order that a potentially valuable benefit is not lost.
Case Study:
A member with an accrued fund on 5 April 2012 of £1.4m  retires in 2016 when the value has increased to £1.7m (£200,000 above the reduced LTA of £1.5m).  If the individual does not have Fixed Protection (or other historic protections) there would be an LTA charge of 55% payable on the excess amount of £200,000 (i.e. £110,000) assuming the excess was drawn as a lump sum.

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For further information, please contact:
Mark Knight/ Emma Murphy/ Melanie Shelley, Broadgate Mainland, 0207 726 6111

Notes to editors:
About Barnett Waddingham
Barnett Waddingham LLP is the UK’s largest independent firm of actuaries, administrators and consultants.  The firm works with Corporates, Trustees and Individuals in both the private and public sector, offering  clear advice and a full range of professional advice including trustee consulting, employer pensions advice, pension management and administration, investment strategy, public sector pensions, risk benefits, life and general insurance consulting as well as the provision of SIPPs, SASSs and specialist executive pension plans’.

The firm has grown steadily since its inception in 1989.  There are currently 50 partners and over 500 staff, based in 7 locations around the UK (Amersham, Bromsgrove, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and London). Barnett Waddingham is also the UK representative of NORACS (North American Actuarial Consulting Services) and EURACS (European Actuarial Consulting Services). 

On Wednesday 18 April 2012, Broadgate Mainland will host the inaugural ‘Neil Mainland Go-Karting Cup’ charity event at the Tower Bridge Team Sport indoor karting centre.

The event is being held to commemorate Neil’s life and raise money for two excellent charities; Macmillan Cancer Support and The Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research.

While many of you will be familiar with Macmillan Cancer Support Fund, the Bobby Moore Fund was set up in memory of legendary footballer Bobby Moore, who sadly died from bowel cancer aged just 51. The money raised is spent by the Fund on high-quality bowel cancer research carried out by leading scientists working across the UK.

With your support we aim to run this event annually and compete for the cup. The go-karting challenge is a fitting event to combine Neil’s passion for motor sport, albeit not as fast as Formula 1, and his sense of enjoyment in life as typified by one of Neil’s mottos ‘life is good’.

There will be 16 teams of three drivers completing for the ‘Neil Mainland – life is good’ Cup and to secure your team we are asking for an entry fee of £900. The evening’s activities will commence at 6.30pm and include food and drink (alcoholic drinks only served after the prize giving).

Teams will compete in a series of heats with points allotted for each person and the team with the most points will be awarded the ‘Neil Mainland – Life is good’ Cup. Team slots are already going fast and one will be lead by Angus Mainland, Neil’s son and an expert kart driver!

While it may already be too late to secure your team’s entry, please make a contribution by contacting Crystal Storan, Zoe Butt or me as all the money raised will be going directly to these fine charities.

On the evening guests are welcome to come and admire or laugh at the ability of the teams’ driving skills.

The team at Broadgate Mainland looks forward to welcoming you.

Roland Cross

Broadgate Mainland, the award winning London based financial and professional services public relations agency, has appointed Alistair Scott as Senior Account Manager.

Scott joins Broadgate Mainland from Grayling, part of the Huntsworth Group, which he joined in 2008. Scott has extensive experience in asset management, professional services and investor relations as well as working across a significant number of international clients across four continents.

Scott will work across a range of accounts, including Durham Business School, Sacker & Partners LLP and Pershing.

Broadgate Mainland was established in 1994 and has cultivated an excellent reputation in the financial and professional services industries as a leading independent communications consultancy. The company has recently earned international attention as a result of its Digital Trends Survey, an annual study of social media in the financial services press now entering its fourth year.

Mark Knight, Director at Broadgate Mainland says:

“We are always on the lookout for people who possess the core qualities Broadgate Mainland strives to bring to its clients: tenacity, industry knowledge, creativity and dynamism. Alistair is not only an excellent example of these qualities, but also brings with him valuable insight and fresh perspectives. This is set to be an important growth year for Broadgate Mainland and we look forward to Alistair being a key contributor to our efforts.”

Alistair Scott, Senior Account Manager, Broadgate Mainland says:

“Broadgate Mainland has a well-earned reputation as one of the UK’s premier financial and business PR consultancies and it is a team I am very proud to be a part of. I am particularly excited to be a joining at this time, as the company works to reinforce its significant footprint among its peers and explore new and exciting sectors of business.”

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For further information please contact:
Alistair Scott
Tel: 020 7776 0550
ascott@broadgatemainland.com

Mark Knight
Tel: 020 7726 6111
mknight@broadgatemainland.com

St. James’s Place, the wealth management group, today launches an expanded training Academy to offer outstanding professionals with no previous experience of providing financial advice, the opportunity to become Partners within St James’s Place. First piloted in 2008 the Academy will take three intakes of up to 20 prospective partners per year on the two year intensive training programme.

At a time when the economic climate has had a life-changing impact on many professionals St James’s place is promoting the wealth management industry as a highly attractive career option for those reflecting on their work/life balance and want more control over their future working life.

The St. James’s Place Academy provides the opportunity for individuals to start up and build their own high quality practice within financial services. Successful applicants to the programme will undertake an intensive education, coaching and assessment programme that will equip them to provide a first class, professional and expert wealth management service to their clients. At the end of the programme successful trainees will be accepted into St James’s Place as Partners and be part of the most successful wealth management firms in the UK.

Adrian Batchelor, Academy Director, said: “The last few years have been a particularly tough and worrying time for professionals. Wide-spread redundancies and uncertain futures have encouraged many individuals to question their career paths. For the right individuals, this is an unrivalled gateway to a new career.”
Batchelor is urging any interested parties to visit the Academy website at www.sjpacademy.co.uk.

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Contact:
St James’s Place

Adrian Batchelor, Academy Director
Telephone: 020 7495 1771
Broadgate Mainland
Roddi Vaughan-Thomas / Lauren Willington
Telephone: 020 7726 6111
rvaughanthomas@broadgatemainland.com / lwillington@broadgatemainland.com

Notes to Editors:
St. James’s Place Wealth Management is a leading UK wealth management organisation. Founded in 1991, St. James’s Place was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1997 and is now a FTSE 250 company with over £26.7 billion funds under management. The company provides face-to-face advice to clients based on their individual needs and circumstances, adapting the advice as requirements change over time to ensure that recommendations remain appropriate.

Broadgate Mainland, the leading financial and professional services PR agency has won a competitive pitch process to manage the public relations activities of St James’s Place Wealth Management (“St James’s Place”), the UK wealth management business.

Broadgate Mainland will work with SJP to manage its consumer and trade PR strategy and promote the firm as a leading provider of high quality Wealth Management advice amongst its peers, clients and stakeholders.

Tony Dunk, marketing director at St James’s Place. said: “We chose to work with Broadgate Mainland because of its proven expertise, specialist experience in personal finance and the strength of its team. Broadgate Mainland is ideally placed to help develop St James’s Place as a trusted source of intelligent insight into wealth management and wider market themes.”

Roddi Vaughan-Thomas, executive director at Broadgate Mainland, said: “St James’s Place is one of the top wealth management firms in the UK with a very impressive reputation amongst its clients and we are thrilled to be working with them.”

The account will be managed by Broadgate Mainland’s Roland Cross, Roddi Vaughan Thomas, Melanie Bradley and Lauren Willington.

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For further information, please contact:
Broadgate Mainland
Roddi Vaughan Thomas, Lauren Willington
Telephone: 020 7726 6111
Email: sjp@broadgatemainland.com