The protection of minority shareholders in listed companies

The Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions established a corporate governance task force in 2005. In 2007 the task force published a report titled Board Independence of Listed Companies. A further report - Protection of Minority Shareholders in Listed Issuers - was published last week and summarises information gathered by the task force concerning the rules designed to protect minority shareholders in eighteen jurisdictions.

The report provides a useful starting point for research but its limitations must be noted: the Task Force did not explicitly require respondents to assess or comment on how the rules were implemented or applied in practice. The eighteen jurisdictions included are: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.