In the great pendulum swing that characterizes the mood toward government oversight of companies and corporate governance, the pendulum in the U.S. has swung against regulation and against mandated governance requirements. However, in the U.K., the pendulum is on the opposite end of the arc, as the current government is moving quickly to adopt new corporate governance requirements.
As discussed in an earlier post (here), the current U.K. governance initiative kicked off with the Prime Minister’s November 2016 Corporate Governance Reform Green Paper, which focused on executive pay, private companies, and workers on boards. The Green Paper solicited comments on its various proposals. The comments have been received and processed and the result is an August 2017 report entitled “Corporate Governance Reform, The Government Response to the Green Paper Consultation” (here). The report sets out a list of governance reform proposals the government intends to put into effect in the coming year.
Continue Reading U.K. Government Announces Corporate Governance Reform Proposals
One feature of the current financial turmoil is that the government has taken or will take control of or ownership positions in a number of business organizations. The phenomenon of government ownership of a private enterprise potentially could present any number of conflicts and challenges. Among other problems that may arise is the question of