As part of a global effort to address existing barriers to gender equality in leadership and employment, countries around the world are taking steps to enhance gender diversity on boards, which can also have positive effects on board dynamics and...

This working paper documents the trends in the ownership structures of listed companies around the world and the rise in ownership concentration. It identifies three major trends in corporate ownership: the dominance of company group structures, in...

This paper addresses the implications of digitalisation on corporate governance. It focuses in particular on the potential for digitalisation to improve market supervision and enforcement of corporate governance related requirements and the...

The sustained growth of institutional investors’ assets under management, together with the growing use of passive investment strategies, raises the question of whether existing frameworks adequately address issues related to investor engagement and...

This paper presents a review of the different committees set up by the boards of directors of companies to support their functions. It first focuses on the role of and trends in board committees, their contribution to corporate governance and their...

This paper provides an overview of developments in non-financial corporate bond markets over the past two decades with respect to their size and credit quality, as well as trends related to insolvency and restructuring. It then explores the role of...

The majority of listed companies are part of a group linked through ownership and/or other mechanisms to exercise control. The popularity of group structures is based on a number of economic and legal advantages, including facilitating the supply of...

Beyond bitcoin, blockchain technology has acquired attention and importance in its own right. Today, it is conceptually accepted that blockchain stands out as a disruptive technology that will change a number of processes in financial services and...

Companies today, in particular banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, increasingly operate their businesses in a group structure. These financial groups have a growing presence in markets worldwide and the economy as a whole. To...

The rise in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as growing actors in international trade and investment has received renewed attention in recent years, not least due to controversy that has arisen over SOE foreign investments. This has raised the profile...

This report aims to provide an overview of business integrity and anti-bribery legislation, policies and practices applicable to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) operating across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Part 1 provides...

This research analyses the improvements to corporate governance within Japanese listed companies and the influence of institutional shareholders. Firstly, in order to analyse the external factors that have promoted the recent corporate governance...

Worldwide, primary corporate bond markets have become an increasingly important source of financing for non-financial companies. This trend is coupled with a relative decrease in traditional bank lending to non-financial companies and low levels of...

Corporate governance frameworks in the Middle East and North Africa region have undergone a substantial evolution in the past decade. Better enforcement of corporate governance rules and regulations has in the past three years emerged as both a...

State-owned and other state-invested enterprises (SIEs) have become more prominent in the global economy over the last decade. A growing role for state-invested enterprises in the marketplace is not in itself onerous. According to an OECD consensus,...

This report is the first known stocktaking of its kind to provide a regional overview of state-owned enterprise (SOE) governance reforms and challenges across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Part One summarises the...

This report evaluates the corporate governance practices of Colombian SOEs against the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The assessment was prepared based on information provided by the Colombian authorities,...

This paper provides a framework for analysing the character and degree of ownership engagement by institutional investors. It argues that the general term “institutional investor” in itself doesn’t say very much about the quality or degree of...

This study provides critical observations on the state of key global equity markets as recent developments have put into question their efficiency and effectiveness in facilitating capital formation. It covers the top 26 initial public offering (IPO)...

A good corporate governance framework should combine transparency, accountability and integrity and this requires knowledge of beneficial ownership. The protection of minority investors and other stakeholder protection will be challenging without...