Current Trends in Corporate Governance : Going from London to Milan Via Toronto

Events taking place in Britain deserve the attention of those interested in corporate governance. The topic has generated much public debate in the United Kingdom (UK) over the past few years. Moreover, the work done in Britain has spurred reviews of corporate governance in markets around the world and has provided a yardstick against which standards in other countries are being measured. This article introduces the reader to the corporate governance debate that has been taking place in the UK. More specifically, it discusses the problems that are said to afflict the management and control of British public companies and describes the work done by various committees appointed to study corporate governance. Corporate governance arrangements in any one country are, to a significant extent, a product of the local economic and social environment. In the UK, it is uncommon for larger firms to have a dominant shareholder. This pattern of ownership is prevalent, however, in most other countries. The existence of a concentrated ownership structure has a profound impact on corporate governance. While enhancing managerial accountability is the issue which attracts most of the attention when public companies are widely held, if there is a controlling shareholder the position of the minority probably deserves to be treated as a higher priority. This article demonstrates this point by discussing developments affecting public companies in Italy and Canada