New Zealand: finance company failures and corporate governance

Earlier this month Jane Diplock, the chairman of New Zealand's Securities Commission, delivered a speech titled "Securities Commission and Corporate Governance". The speech provides a brief overview of the development of New Zealand's Corporate Governance Code and highlights the Commission's recent and ongoing work in this field. The speech provides examples of poor governance in failed finance companies and in this regard it is stated:

There is no common thread across all finance companies, but there are a range of aspects where good governance was lacking. As you will appreciate with investigations underway I cannot be specific but I would like to share with you some general themes evident in the troubled finance companies".

Note: Click here for a copy of "Corporate Governance in New Zealand: Principles and Guidelines". A handbook is available here.