Find Lawyers in Barcelona, Spain for Corporate Governance and Compliance Practice

Corporate governance contributes positively to improve management of companies, since it can enhance competitiveness and long-term sustainability, and therefore it could be said that corporate governance also brings positive effects for society as a whole.

Good corporate governance is reflected in the responsibility of the company, cooperating with both EU and domestic rules in order for companies to observe certain criteria or recommendations.

For instance, in Spain the stock market authority has recently published a practical guide providing a set of criteria and guidelines for companies operating in the market, under clear and quality explanations warning when these companies might be moving away from the above mentioned recommendations.

EU rules require companies to include in its annual report a statement on corporate governance if their shares are publicly traded on a regulated market of any EU Member State.  

In practice, the corporate governance statement should include information about the corporate governance system, such as the corporate governance code which is applied by the company, the internal control systems and risk management, the shareholders and their powers, the rights of shareholders, board of directors, management and supervisory bodies and their committees.

This information may be useful for investors and certainly eases any investment decision. It also strengthens the confidence of investors in companies in which they invest, since they can count with a more transparent market, plus it also improves companies’ image.

On the other hand, according to these rules, companies that deviate from the provisions of corporate governance rules will have to explain in their corporate governance statement which parts of the rules have not been accomplished and the reasons for it. On several occasions such non-accomplishment may have also been done consciously, should it allow more efficient management of the company.

Ultimately, all of the abovementioned rules aim to promote a culture of responsibility, trying to make companies make a thorough examination of corporate governance regimes.

In a similar vein are those compliance programs whose approach refers to criminal risk management of the company.

With regards to these, compliance programs involve the establishment of an internal company regulation in order to ensure compliance with the criminal law of each country.

In addition, the integration of these programs provide for the participation of the compliance officer to ensure the proper implementation of the compliance program.