By James Langton

(November 16 – 16:20 ET) – The Financial Times is reporting that a powerful group of institutional investors is lobbying large British companies to split the roles of chairman and chief executive.

FT says the Association of British Insurers, whose members control about £1 trillion of assets, including approximately one-quarter of the U.K. stock market, has written to senior non-executive directors at more than 20 companies where the role of chairman and CEO is combined.

The companies targeted include Amvescap plc, the firm that controls AIM Fund Management Inc. and Trimark Financial Corp., retailer Marks and Spencer, and entertainment conglomerate EMI.

In the letter, David Rough, chairman of the ABI’s investment committee, says that investors are concerned about the combined roles, he asks why the companies have not separated the two jobs and when they will be reassessing the situation. Two influential corporate governance reports in the U.K., by committees led by Sir Adrian Cadbury and Sir Ronald Hampel, both recommended that the two jobs to be kept separate.

The issue has attracted attetion in Canada, as bank activist Yves Michaud has lobbied for the big six banks to split these roles.

Peter Montagnon, the ABI’s head of investment affairs, tells FT that the ABI had not received any replies to its letters. “We felt this was an issue of principle which we wanted to flag publicly. We will still work discreetly to achieve any changes, and we aren’t about to start shouting on everything from the roof tops.”