Today, the Organizing Committee has adopted at its sitting the program of the conference and has decided to suggest the participants working out common approaches to the development and implementation of codes of corporate conduct, considering international standards and the Russian experience.
Today, the Russian society realizes the importance of reforming corporate relations. The Code of corporate management has been prepared for implementation. A number of draft laws have been worked out, aimed at increasing the transparency of companies and protecting investors' rights. The conference will emphasize the problem of improving the quality of corporate management of companies-issuers and lending institutions and study the first results of the implementation of codes of corporate conduct in Russia and international experience in this sphere.
According to the MICEX CEO Alexander Zakharov, the conference will also discuss the MICEX's experience in improving the culture of corporate management. The MICEX has begun to develop a code of corporate conduct for exchanges, aimed at regulating relations in the sphere of corporate management of issuers and the MICEX itself. After the code is adopted by shareholders it will be sent to the RF Securities Commission for approval.
Such codes are known in the world practice (e.g., the Code of the London Stock Exchange and others). After the bankruptcy of Enron, the US Securities Commission (SEC) urged US exchanges to work out new rules of corporate management for listed companies. The NYSE included the principles of corporate conduct into its rules of stocks circulation, which resulted in having the observance of the rules of corporate conduct as one of the conditions of listing stocks on the NYSE. To study this experience, the Organizing Committee has asked NYSE representatives S.Brian and R.Bernard to give a special report at the conference.
Besides, the conference will also discuss the latest tends in the sphere of corporate management in the EU countries, described in the Report on the current foundations of regulation in the legal sphere of European companies ("Vinter's Report"). These foundations were worked out by a group of experts headed by Professor D.Vinter of Rotterdam University.
At the suggestion of K.Volkov, President of NSMA, the Organizing Committee decided to pay special attention to discussing the practice of corporate management in lending institutions.
Director of Moscow School of Banking Alexander Matushin and representative of the International Financial Corporation Natalia Kosheleva stressed the importance of the integration of the ideas of corporate conduct in the teaching process. N.Kosheleva spoke about a workbook, which is being prepared for universities. The MICEX and Moscow School of Banking have agreed to jointly prepare a workbook on corporate conduct for Russia's schools of banking.
Representative of the RF Securities Commission Viktor Maidanyuk suggested discussing possible exchange of experience in the sphere of improving the quality of corporate conduct in CIS countries. He said that the conference materials might be sent to the Council of Regulators of CIS. Vice-President of the Association of Lawyers of Russia Peter Barenboim noted that the development of model codes of corporate conduct in CIS countries could be a special sphere of work initiated at the conference.
