Category: Governance

Over the past several decades, most countries have adopted the “Audit Committee” style of financial and risk oversight in their corporate governance structures. However, Japan has chosen to refine its somewhat unique framework for oversight of the audit function and directors’ duties, which utilizes a separate board known as the “Kansayaku Board”. This is the predominant form of governance and audit review in Japan, as it employed by approximately 98% of Japanese listed companies.

The Corporate Governance Code, with which UK listed companies “comply or explain”, has come a long way in 20 years. It’s a good moment to take stock; and this collection of short essays does exactly that.

Now that Japan will adoptthe comply-or-explain principle in its Company Law, evermore relevant: Abstract – How can the existing Corporate Governance mechanisms at the European level be improved? ….This paper discusses some of the answers proposed by the civil society following the Green Book on the topic and the public consultation launched by the European Commission on one of the aspect at the heart of Corporate Governance: The Comply or Explain Principle.

http://bdti.mastertree.jp/f/slamrz5n

Abstract – Hong Kong is a unique cosmopolitan business hub driven by pragmatism with a Chinese flair, in which, for many Chinese enterprises, corporate law and governance were introduced as alien concepts. As in many other countries, Hong Kong is obligated by international markets to embrace these requirements. Yet many business operators lack even the understanding of basic company law, partly because the obligations are incompatible with the values and corporate cultures nurtured in Hong Kong.

By Nolan Haskovec June 2012

The Panel for Vitalizing Financial and Capital Markets* has released its recommendations. (*Chairman, Takatoshi ITO Professor, Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo). The tentative English Translation can be found at this link: http://www.fsa.go.jp/en/refer/councils/vitalizing/20131213/01.pdf

”New rules being examined by Ireland’s Central Bank may require banks and insurers to appoint more women to their boards.

Excerpt from article: Recently, the OECD has begun the process of considering updates to the OECD Principles. The OECD’s discussions will help frame the future of corporate governance-related reform efforts around the globe. It will likely echo the significant interest in Europe and other parts of the world in:

Main items from the Summary: Eighty-two percent of TOPIX 100 companies have appointedexternal directors. The trend is more pronounced in companieswith a high ratio of foreign investors. In this regard, whencompanies do not have any external directors on their boards,they can still meet the Tokyo Stock Exchange requirement thatcompanies appoint independent directors by ensuring thattheir audit & supervisory board members2 are independent.

David F. Larcker and Brian Tayan have written an excellent article on the extreme importance of quality of governance processesand contextual aspects that affect them. Here's the introduction; you can download the entire article at the link below.