Finnish Corporate Governance

Originally publised in European Lawyer magazine April 2004.

Finnish Corporate Governance Framework

The Finnish regulatory framework for corporate governance and directors’ duties is governed by the following three Acts: the Companies Act, the Securities Markets Act and the Accounting Act. In addition, the decisions of the Ministry of Finance on listing particulars and the rules of the Financial Supervision Authority and the Helsinki Exchanges impose several requirements and obligations applicable to publicly listed companies. The aforementioned laws, which contain mainly mandatory provisions, cover a number of issues that in many other jurisdictions are stipulated in corporate governance codes. Therefore, it can be stated that the Finnish corporate governance codes in many cases provide a commentary on mandatory provisions of law.