2007 review of the implementation status of corporate governance disclosures

Abstract

Under the agenda item “other business” during the 24th session of ISAR, the Chair introduced the subject of corporate governance disclosure and gave the floor to a member of the Secretariat who presented the findings of the “2007 Review of the Implementation Status of Corporate Governance Disclosures: an inventory of disclosure requirements in 25 emerging markets” (TD/B/COM.2/ISAR/CRP.6). The Secretariat highlighted a number of important trends influencing corporate governance (CG) disclosure, including: increased pressure on investment funds and other institutional investors to disclose their voting on proxy statements; the impact of electronic technologies on shareholder voting and CG disclosure; increasing convergence among national CG standards around the world; and a global wave of stock exchange mergers that is adding pressure for convergence in CG practices. The Secretariat also presented the findings of the 2007 review, which showed that nearly all of the 25 markets in the study required the disclosure of more than half of the 53 items in the ISAR benchmark on good practices in CG disclosure.