As the consultation on the UK's Stewardship Code draws to a close, the UK's reporting regulator, the FRC, has moved to strengthen its secretariat with the appointment of ABI governance veteran, Peter Montagnon.

Montagnon will join his former ABI boss Stephen Haddrill, on June 1st. FRC chairman Christopher Hogg said that Montagnon's appointment would: "significantly enhance the FRC's capabilities across all the areas of its work important to investors, in particular providing valuable perspective and input into the development of the UK Corporate Governance Code and the new stewardship code for UK investors."

In a statement Montagnon said that now was the right time to take up a new challenge and that he looked forward to the continued challenge of driving forward higher standards of corporate governance at the FRC.

Immediately before joining joining the ABI in 2000, Montagnon worked at the Financial Times. He is a past chairman of the International Corporate Governance Network and a member of  the European Corporate Governance Forum.

Montagnon's move looks particularly interesting in light of suggestions by Reuters that the City is planning to launch a new engagement project to "take on recalcitrant boards".

According to an un-named source: ""The basic idea behind this group is to ensure good ownership and to have something that is broadly representative of the entire UK investment community."

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