Boards are coming under more scrutiny and pressure than ever before from regulators, investors and the public to be effective and to continually raise their performance. More accountability is called for, which brings further complexity ...

Compliance is becoming more important as a variable that senior decision-makers must consider when choosing international expansion locations. At the same time, legal and tax teams need to know what jurisdictions are complex for handling compliance issues.

Artificial intelligence (AI) warrants the close attention of the board because it presents opportunities when applied well and risks when applied badly. Organisations that successfully exploit AI can disrupt the market, drive growth and manage their commercial risk. Yet, AI technologies also present...

So, in case you missed it, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into play in May 2018. This is the biggest shake-up of data-protection laws in decades and will affect every organisation in Europe. With it we see a multitude of obligations that require companies to securely and eff...

Traditional industries are being disrupted by agile, innovative startups faster than ever before. In that context, new and diverse ways of thinking are required for larger and more established organisations to respond to new market dynamics, evolving customer needs and increasingly complex technolog...

The pace and scale of disruption will continue to present a number of challenges to companies; however, opportunities to harness new technology and trends will undoubtedly emerge to reshape business models, improve companies’ performance and value creation, and focus on and address emerging risks....

Email and print should now be a thing of the past for board communications, in large part due to the security risks they pose. While technology is changing the way everyone does business today, research has found that boards can often be surprisingly slow to protect confidential data and conversatio...

Mazars and ecoDa highlight key challenges facing European corporate governance systems A quarter of a century since the world’s first corporate governance code, Mazars and ecoDa report the headline findings from a survey of 130 listed ...

The Board Leadership in Corporate Culture: European Report 2017, produced by Mazars and Board Agenda in association with INSEAD, is the first survey of its kind to measure how effective boards and directors across Europe are at leading and managing corporate culture—a crucial success facto...

In today’s competitive economy, it is critical for board members to actively and productively participate in the work of governing. Exceptional director performance is vital in order for a corporate board to be effective and for an organisation’s goals to be achieved. The white paper ‘

In this new survey report, the research team conducted interviews with professional chairs in different parts of the world to identify and compare specific practices and instruments used in different countries. The report gives insights into pertinent issues surrounding the work of the chair across...

The IFC Corporate Governance Group (World Bank) in partnership with ecoDa have just published a Guide to Corporate Governance Practices of the European Union. This publication offers an overview of the changes taking place across the EU’s corporate governance landscape. It provides a focused exam...

ECI has fostered ethics and compliance (E&C) professionals with insight and research on the most pressing issues to the E&C industry since 1922, and this new report importantly underscores the critical role management plays in reducing stakeholder pressure to compromise their ethical standar...

Effective communication lies at the heart of a high-performing board. How members of the board communicate with each other can either be an enabler or a highly destructive force if not properly managed. Clear, transparent and timely communication by boards is essential.   ...

Yet another misconduct scandal has hit a major financial institution. This time the bank in question, Wells Fargo, was considered best in class having sailed through the financial crisis relatively unscathed and, as a result, boasting the best bank valuation among its global peers. So, what gover...

Whether you are part of a European company or a non-European company that trades or stores data inside Europe, it is likely that the new European data protection regulations coming into play will affect the way you handle employee and customer data. So how do you prepare for the upcomi...

We are delighted to introduce our first issue of Global Tax Insight, our biannual publication in which we cover key topical tax issues from around the globe. Its timing could not have been more propitious, following the UK’s referendum vote to leave the European Union. This surprise ...

Mazars’ head of board practice, Anthony Carey, has released this thought-provoking document on the importance of board culture and its role in achieving sustainable success. In it, he identifies four broa...

This article, published in 2016, is part of the Broadridge Insights series. Governance has emerged as the signature risk of the post-financial crisis era in Europe. The great recession brought in its wake costly bank failures, bailouts, and write-offs of bad debts, followed by tense ...

The Board Charter. For Sustainable Success® is designed to be used alongside existing corporate governance codes and is aimed at boards striving for sustainable success for their stakeholders and wider society. In this second ...

Today’s board confronts significant oversight accountability – alongside personal liability – that’s part and parcel of an increasingly complex compliance landscape. What’s more, the uptick in shareholder activism means boards now need to evaluate deals and...

InfraRead is our biannual publication covering a range of legal and transactional issues relevant to the global transport and infrastructure space. In this issue, we look at Port developments in AsiaPac: A platform for regional growth and global trade; Riding the wave: Australian stud...

In our previous issue of Credit Funds INSIGHT, we put the spotlight on the sea change in non-bank lending, as banking monopoly restrictions began to be loosened across Europe. As 2016 is looking to be another robust year for the private debt sector with strong growth in the marketing o...

We are delighted to introduce this seventeenth issue of EnergySource, our biannual publication in which we cover a range of legal and transactional issues relevant to the energy sector from our offices across the globe.

Since 1994, the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) has conducted a longitudinal, cross-sectional study of workplace conduct, from the employee’s perspective. Now in its eleventh iteration, the data from the Global Business Ethics Survey (GBES) provides the global benchmark on the state of et...

This new ICGI report analyses the need for digitalization and its impact on boards and senior executives, with the aim of enlightening and supporting leaders in their digital journey, and gives 11 key implications and recommendations taking into account the external and internal environments. Author...

Annual reporting in 2015: evolving communication in a changing world is the third edition of EY’s annual review of FTSE 350 annual reports and accounts (ARAs). This follows up on EY reviews from previous years,

New reporting rules require certain large EU companies to include in their management report a non-financial statement. The objective is to lay the foundation for a new model of corporate reporting that complements financial transparency with environmental and social information necessary to underst...

This report is the result of a two-year global roundtable series organised by Frank Bold and Cass Business School. It presents an emerging comprehensive approach to corporate governance that can assist corporations to develop a broad understanding of their purpose, as well as build a corporate strat...

Corporate culture has been a hot topic for some time now, and boards are now asking themselves more than ever how they can ensure proper oversight. The board of directors is ultimately responsible for defining and monitoring corporate culture, and each board committee should have an active role in e...

This report is part of a series, following earlier reports on developments in corporate governance and audit. It provides the FRC’s assessment of corporate reporting in the UK based on broad outreach and evidence, including that obtained from the FRC’s own monitoring work, performed by its Corpo...

This report seeks to address how boards and executive management can steer corporate behaviour to create a culture that will deliver sustainable good performance. This report looks at the increasing importance which corporate culture plays in delivering long-term business and economic success – a...

Brainloop reveals the avoidable risk and cost of printed board meeting materials. FTSE 100 and 250 companies are burning a huge £40,581 a year developing and distributing board books. This infographic shows how savings could be made.

Good-quality board papers provide a platform for soundly based decision-making, while poor-quality papers will defeat even the best-intentioned Board. Company Secretaries face an ongoing challenge to present and securely distribute high-quality information to the Board and its committe...