JIVOR Capital attends Subsidiary Governance Conference 2025

18th November 2025, why is this an important date?

The deadline for mandatory identity verification (IDV) for new and existing directors and People with Significant Control (PSCs). From this date, new directors and PSCs must have verified their identity before their appointment is filed, and companies must ensure all existing directors and PSCs are verified by their company's next confirmation statement after this date. Of course, directors and PSCs can do the verification themselves but most likely they will need to turn toward their corporate service agents to hold their hands.

Geopolitical risk- do boards carry out the correct impact assessments? The obvious risks are of course (i) US-China relations, (ii) Middle East conflict and the impact on oil & gas supply, (iii) Russia/Ukraine and (iv) US international trade strategy. However the one nobody seems to be talking so openly about is the fiscal debt levels in the Eurozone (and the UK). How will this factor play out, amongst others, in terms of subsidiary management, the enhanced regulatory environment and further tightening of economic substance requirements.

Is there a trend to 'in-housing' of entities and simplification of group structures? The conference definitely brought out a desire for in-housing but with a reality that there is a continuing high dependence on service providers. That being said, the one-size fits all does not always meet quality and delivery standards, with a focus more on the provider being a stellar project manager guiding in-house on local requirements and meeting deadlines. The desire to reduce the volume of entities under management, as always, remains an objective both at legal team level and across broader units of the firm (finance obviously!). That being said, its not an easy fix and does bring up some unwanted surprises when the envelope is opened on some of these companies.

Finally, the backdrop of AI remains a topic of much interest. Rest assured I will not ask Copilot or ChatGPT to write a concluding comment on this. However, formalising AI in a steer-co and boardroom setting is now becoming the norm and further developments will clearly reshape governance going forward.