Governance

Relevant topics

The following topics are relevant:

• Discipline: Commitment from senior management to adhere to conduct that is recognized within the organization and seen as appropriate. This includes a company’s awareness and commitment to the underlying principles of good governance, particularly at the senior management level. All parties involved commit to procedures, processes and authority structures established by the organization.
• Transparency: Transparency is the ease with which an outsider is able to make a meaningful analysis of a company’s actions, fundamentals and aspects relevant to that company. This is a measure of how good management is at making the necessary information available – not just audit data, but general reports and press releases – in an open, accurate and timely manner. It reflects whether investors are getting a true and fair view of what is happening within the company. All implemented actions and input for decision making will be available for inspection by authorized parties.
• Independency: Independence is the extent to which mechanisms are in place to minimize or avoid potential conflicts of interest. These mechanisms vary from the composition of the board to appointments of committees of the board and external parties, such as the accountants. The decisions made and internal processes established must be objective and must not allow undue influences. All processes, decision-making and mechanisms used are designed in such a way as to prevent or minimize potential conflicts of interest.
• Accountability: Individuals or bodies within a company, who make decisions and take actions on specific issues, must take responsibility for their decisions and actions. Effective mechanisms are needed to account for this. These mechanisms provide investors with the means to query and review the actions of the Board of Directors and committees.
• Responsibility: In relation to management, responsibility refers to behavior that facilitates corrective action and punishes mismanagement. Responsible management would, if necessary, make every effort to put the company on the right track. While the Board of Directors is accountable to the Company, it must act responsively and responsibly to all of the Company’s stakeholders.
• Fairness: The systems that exist within the company must be balanced by taking into account all stakeholders and the future of the company. All decisions taken, processes used and their implementation must not give an unfair advantage to any particular party.
• Social responsibility: A well-run company is aware of and responds to social issues, with ethical standards being a high priority. A good employee is increasingly seen as being non-discriminatory, non-exploitative and responsible with regard to environmental and human rights issues. By taking such factors into account, a company is likely to experience indirect economic benefits, such as improved productivity and corporate reputation.

Our experienced consultants can help you with, among other things:

• Defining clear roles and responsibilities in policy
• Setting up a compliance department
• Setting up specialist departments (e.g. Crypto desk)
• Assessing a Compliance department (Compliance Maturity Assessment)