Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook: Technology, Finance, Environmental, and International Guidance and Best Practices

CHAPTER 64

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: UNITED KINGDOM

Dennis Cox

64.1 CURRENT STATE REGULATORY COMPLIANCE OVERVIEW

(a) Political and Cultural Environment

(b) Legal Environment

(c) Accounting/Finance Environment

(d) Auditing Environment

64.2 COMPLIANCE TRENDS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

(a) Cultural and Political

(b) Legal

(c) Technology

(d) Process

(e) People

64.3 THE MARKET AND HUMAN BENEFITS OF GETTING THERE SOONER RATHER THAN LATER

64.4 CONCLUSION

64.1 CURRENT STATE REGULATORY COMPLIANCE OVERVIEW

(a) POLITICAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Within the United Kingdom, corporate governance has been enshrined in the psyche of business for decades. In common with other countries, changes to codes have generally been as a result of well-publicized cases where the government of the time has felt compelled to act.

Cadbury, Hampel, Turnbull, and Higgs all produced reports, and the Combined Code has then tried to implement these standards consistently throughout the listed sector. In this chapter it is the Combined Code on which we primarily focus and consider its impact on the UK financial community. The political imperative is quite clear. Governments of all persuasions have seen corporate governance as being a political imperative since there is no advantage to the ruling party as being soft on corporate activity.

The culture of business in the UK has always been globalist; effectively an island state has to be globalist. UK firms recognize that the world is full of markets in which they can ...