8th Annual Development Finance Institutions Corporate Governance Meeting
On March 4 and 5, 2014, the 8th Annual Development Finance Institutions (DFI) Meeting on Corporate Governance took place in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Inter-American Investment Corporation, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. The meeting was organized by the DFI Corporate Governance Working Group on Corporate Governance, in which IFC is an active member.
Participating institutions reviewed implementation progress of the Corporate Governance Development Framework (Framework) and welcomed Mexico’s Nacional Financiera and Russia’s Vnesheconombank as new signatory institutions, bringing the total number to 33.
This year’s meeting was the most attended and diverse one, with a total of 30 institutions from 24 countries represented. The annual survey presented at the conference demonstrated that the majority of signatories have made significant progress towards implementing procedures for corporate governance. Strong indicators are the growing number of dedicated resources and the increase in institutions that have full-time staff dedicated to corporate governance.
The importance of training investment staff was raised several times throughout the meeting and the group explored avenues for collaboration to offer joint training, share information on specialists hired to deliver the training or to offer training spots to other signatories of events that are organized when possible.
Furthermore, several institutions have designed their own tools based on the Common Methodology’s corporate governance questionnaire and progression matrix - evidence that the Framework initiative is taking root in organizations of different sizes serving various markets.
Looking ahead, the following key priorities were identified by all attendees during the conference:
- Continue to hold the annual meeting which has become a cornerstone of the cooperation among signatories and develop tools for virtual communication and knowledge sharing among signatories.
- Investigate further the process of nominating directors in investee companies.
- Complete the study on a “Business Case for Corporate Governance” (a selected group of DFIs, coordinated by the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, which explores the interrelationship between corporate governance and financial performance), and start working on individual case studies to share practical lessons based on DFI experience.
- Explore the relationship between business integrity and corporate governance and provide recommendations on how to achieve greater synergy between the two fields.
March 2014
Related Links
- Agenda (PDF)
- Full conference proceedings
- Framework (PDF)
- DFI CG Working Group
- Corporate Governance Development Framework (Official Website)
