Responding to the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) draft UK Stewardship Code 2026, ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) says effective stewardships requires asset managers and owners to adopt a balanced and holistic approach reporting on what they do and the outcomes their actions achieve.

Mike Suffield, director, policy and insights, ACCA, said: “We strongly support the draft guideline’s focus on demonstrating the actual outcome of stewardship activities.

“That is why we support the creation of tailored guidance to help signatories to the Code to disclose and explain how effective they are in achieving investment goals.”

ACCA does call on the FRC to make the Guide more specific in key areas. This includes calling for concrete examples concerning changes underway in the business environment – such as evolving employment practices – and encouraging signatories to disclose how they integrate environmental and societal considerations into investment decisions and engagement activities.

This would help asset managers and owners better understand the long-term sustainable value for clients and beneficiaries and therefore, crucially, further enhance trust and accountability. While the revised stewardship definition focuses on the creation of long-term sustainable value for clients and beneficiaries, ACCA is asking the FRC to do more to emphasise the collective environmental and societal challenges the world faces.

A key area that needs attention in the Code is fraud, particularly as the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act’s “failure to prevent” offence is effective from September 1, 2025.

Rachael Johnson, head of risk management and corporate governance, ACCA, said: “We encourage the FRC to address the role of stewardship concerning fraud risk oversight and prevention, given today’s accelerating threats and their devastating effects on the economy and society at large. 

“Board members and investors have crucial roles to play in identifying cultural, governance, and control weaknesses that enable the systemic nature of fraud.”