The new corporate governance pages on the Oslo Børs web site will be kept continuously updated with news and information on corporate governance issues, and will provide an important source of information for everyone interested in this important area.
Corporate governance is principally concerned with the interaction of a company´s shareholders, board directors and management. The issues this involves play an ever-increasing role in building investor confidence. Recent events have damaged the general level of investor confidence, and this makes it all the more important that companies follow the corporate governance route to building market confidence. Oslo Børs intends to be a driving force in this process.
"Investor protection is a key concept for corporate governance. This makes it essential that investors have sufficient confidence in the systems that companies use to direct and control their business and that companies have an open policy on providing information to the market. There can be no doubt that investors take a more positive view of companies that are recognised as having good corporate governance practices, and this in turn has a positive effect on the market´s pricing of their shares," observes Sven Arild Andersen, President and CEO of Oslo Børs.
Recent events in the world´s capital markets have given investors good grounds to suspect that a number of large listed companies have operated with inadequate internal systems for directing and controlling their business - or even without such systems. In addition recent cases of serious manipulation of company accounts have reduced investor confidence in corporate financial reporting. These events have prompted greater recognition of the essential role that corporate governance issues play in ensuring investor protection and in rebuilding investors´ confidence in the information that companies provide to the market. It is essential that the Norwegian market follows the example set internationally and increases its focus on corporate governance.
An important feature of good corporate governance is that companies show a policy commitment to providing investors with information over and above the compulsory level required by the stock exchange regulations. Oslo Børs has published new recommendations for companies to provide information on corporate governance in their annual reports for 2002, and these can be found at www.ose.no/cg.
