Europe: Governance Forum publications

Last week the European Corporate Governance Forum published two documents: its 2009 annual report (here, pdf) and the minutes of its meeting on 19 February 2010 (here, pdf). Sir David Walker attended the February meeting and spoke about his review of bank and financial institution governance; the minutes record his answers to questions from Forum members.

The minutes also provide an insight into the European Commission's forthcoming green paper on corporate governance, due to be published this month. To quote from the minutes:

As with the Walker report, some of the planned recommendations are specific for the financial services industry, others are also relevant for listed companies in general, for instance the recommendations with regard to shareholders. At this stage some recommendations are further developed than others, such as the recommendations on risk. No choices have been made yet as to whether and to what extent the recommendations should take the form of legislative measures. This will depend on the Commissioner's decision".