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HLS Faculty & Senior Fellows
Program on Corporate Governance Advisory Board
- Peter Atkins
- David Bell
- Kerry E. Berchem
- Richard Brand
- Daniel Burch
- Paul Choi
- Jesse Cohn
- Arthur B. Crozier
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino
- Steven J. Williams
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Out of the Shadows and Into the Light
For the last four years, regulators and law makers have been focusing extraordinary efforts on ensuring that financial regulation is adequate to protect the financial system from risks emanating from the banking sector. However, it is only more recently that policy makers have turned their attention towards possible systemic risk related to entities which carry […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Banks, Financial policies, Financial regulation, FSB, International governance, Oversight, Securitization, Shadow banking, Systemic risk
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Assigning Value to Long-Term Incentive Pay
“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on. “I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least—at least I mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know.” “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing […]
Click here to read the complete postSelected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2013
In the years since the financial reporting scandals and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and in particular following the financial crisis and the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, boards of directors have faced greater burdens and more intense scrutiny of their activities and performance. One manifestation of this has been pressure to change the role of […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, General governance, Management
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The Evolution of Corporate Governance in Brazil
In the past decades the Brazilian economy has undergone major changes such as macroeconomic stability; achievement of investment grade status for the debt of the government and many individual firms; strong economic growth; and development of pension funds, which became major investors in public company shares. Significant changes were also observed in the stock market. […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Accounting & Disclosure, Boards of Directors, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Boards of Directors, Brazil, Disclosure, General governance, International governance, IPOs, Shareholder rights
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FSA Calendar Year-End Update 2012
Fines imposed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) since 1 January 2012 (through 20 December) have totalled £310 million, more than four times the total for 2011 (see Figure 1 below). This increase is due to a handful of very large fines, including the £160 million fine against UBS for LIBOR manipulation announced 19 December, […]
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Posted in Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Financial regulation, FSA, International governance, LIBOR, UK
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EU Commission Proposes Action Plan for Corporate Governance
On December 12, 2012, the European Commission published an Action Plan with initiatives it intends to undertake in 2013 in the fields of EU company law and corporate governance. These initiatives are primarily inspired by the responses to the Commission’s 2011 Green Paper on the EU corporate governance framework and an on-line consultation on the […]
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Posted in International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged EU, European Commission, General governance, International governance
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A “Sea Change” in Public Pension Reporting on the Horizon
Executive Summary Recently issued rules by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) will notably change the way state and local governments account for and report the results of their defined benefit pension plans. Some plans may see their reported funded percentages fall under the new requirements. A plan’s funded status will now be reflected on […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Accounting standards, Financial reporting, Goldman Sachs, Pension funds
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Are Mutual Funds Active Voters?
In our paper, Are Mutual Funds Active Voters?, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we document that mutual funds vary significantly in how they fulfill their fiduciary duty to vote their shares in shareholders’ interests. Approximately 25% of mutual funds vote with ISS on nearly all company agenda items throughout our five-year sample […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Corporate Elections & Voting, Institutional Investors
Tagged Agency costs, Institutional Investors, ISS, Mutual funds, Shareholder voting
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The JP Morgan “Whale” Report and the Ghosts of the Financial Crisis
Editor’s Note: Ben W. Heineman, Jr. is a former GE senior vice president for law and public affairs and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s schools of law and government. This post is based on an article that appeared in the Harvard Business Review online. The apparition of 2008 returns once more. Two recently released […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Crisis, Op-Eds & Opinions
Tagged Banks, Financial crisis, Financial institutions, JPMorgan, Loss causation, Risk management
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Federal Reserve Updates Consolidated Supervision Framework for Large Financial Institutions
Summary On December 17, 2012, the staff of the Federal Reserve issued a Supervision and Regulation (“SR”) letter describing the Federal Reserve’s new framework for consolidated supervision of large financial institutions. SR letters address significant policy and procedural matters related to the Federal Reserve’s supervisory responsibilities. Under the new framework, the Federal Reserve’s primary supervisory […]
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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Crisis, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Dodd-Frank Act, Federal Reserve, Financial crisis, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, Recovery & resolution plans
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