Green Paper on Corporate governance in financial institutions and remuneration policies

In response to the financial crisis, the Commission committed itself in its March 2009 Communication on "Driving European Recovery" to improving corporate governance in financial institutions. The Commission wanted to ensure that the interests of consumers and other stakeholders are better taken into account, businesses are managed in a more sustainable way and bankruptcy risks are reduced in the longer term.

As a first step, the Commission is now launching a public consultation on a Green Paper that details possible ways forward to deal with the following issues:

• How to improve the functioning and the composition of boards of financial institutions in order to enhance their supervision of senior management;
• How to establish a risk culture at all levels of a financial institution in order to ensure that long-term interests of the business are taken into account;
• How to enhance the involvement of shareholders, financial supervisors and external auditors in corporate governance matters;
• How to change remuneration policies in companies in order to discourage excessive risk taking.