Hungary: Corporate Governance Guidelines

An English version of the Budapest Stock Exchange's "Corporate Governance Guidelines" (2007) has been published on the ECGI website here.

Austria: Revised Corporate Governance Code

A revised version, in English, of the Austrian Code of Corporate Governance (2007) has been published on the ECGI website here.

South Africa: Company Law Reform

In December 2007, the Corporate Laws Amendment Act (Act Number 24 of 2006) came into force. This Act makes a number of important changes to company law in South Africa, including statutory endorsement of accounting standards and a relaxation of the rules governing financial assistance provided by a company for the purchase of its own shares. For further information click here.

Update: See this post for further information on company law reform in South Africa. 

US: SEC News

The SEC has launched “Financial Explorer”, which, according to SEC Chairman Cox, will “help investors quickly and easily analyze financial results of public companies. Financial Explorer paints the picture of corporate financial performance with diagrams and charts, using financial information provided to the SEC as “interactive data” in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)”. For further information click here.

SEC has voted to bring forward amendments to modernize foreign company disclosure requirements, including the elimination of paper submissions. Chairman Cox observed: “The proposed amendments would bring our foreign company disclosure requirements into the 21st Century by eliminating any requirement for paper, and by giving investors instant access to foreign company disclosure documents electronically, in English, on the Internet”. For further information, click here.

SEC Commissioner Kathleen Casey delivered the opening speech at the ALI-ABA Conference on "Corporate Governance: The Changing Environment" (Washington, D.C., February 21). Commissioner Casey spoke about those areas of corporate governance on which the SEC is focusing: internal controls, proxy rules and executive compensation. The speech is available here.

US: Delaware: Can a company company director bring a derivative action?

In Schoon v Smith (No 554, 2006, 12 February 2008) it was argued that equity and public policy support the argument that a company director should be able to bring a derivative action in respect of wrongdoing by the company’s other directors. The Delaware Supreme Court rejected this argument; the court’s opinion contains some very interesting discussion of the equitable principles governing the derivative action in Delaware.