The Financial Sector and Corporate Governance: Lessons from the UK

In 1992 the Cadbury Committee report on the financial aspects of corporate governance waspublished. The Committee had been established following the failures of a number of highprofile businesses in the UK which had shaken confidence in the market. Some nine yearslater, in 2001, the collapse of Enron sent shockwaves through the US market. As a result of theEnron collapse and various other high profile scandals in the years since its occurrence, the USis examining its own corporate governance structures and provisions to determine how thesemight be improved and help avoid another Enron. The EU similarly is developing principlesand legislation to improve corporate governance, and scandals such as Royal Ahold andParmalat have helped drive further governance reforms.In this paper we detail the development of corporate governance codes in the UK and theadaptation of similar codes in the EU. We discuss the role of the financial sector in corporategovernance and how principles for regulation and supervision of the financial sectorcomplement codes of conduct and legislation in the area of corporate governance.JEL Classification numbers: G34, G28, G22, G23Keywords: corporate governance, financial sector; institutional investors.