Shareholders are under pressure to get better acquainted with the companies they own in the belief that having more engaged owners will lead to better governance. That, in turn, might prevent a repeat of the rampant risk-taking that led to bank blow-ups, the credit crunch and global recession.

Is there any evidence shareholders have taken this on board and responded? Not really, according to a study of 700 companies in 17 European countries by RiskMetrics. Attendance levels at shareholder meetings showed virtually no change in 2009, up slightly on average across Europe to 61.3 per cent from 60.4 per cent in 2008. And although there have been a number of well-publicised examples of shareholder dissatisfaction this year, overall “investors in Europe did not exhibit notably higher dissent levels” in 2009 than 2008, says RiskMetrics.