New Corporate Governance Code In Finland

I. Introduction

The Finnish Corporate Governance Recommendation (the "CGR 2003"), initially issued in the year 1997, underwent last considerable revision in the year 2003. Although it has proven to be well-functioning and of an internationally high standard, new regulations and recent international developments made an update necessary. Thus, the board of the Securities Market Association established a Corporate Governance working group on 26 December 2006. The main task of the working group was to evaluate the updating needs of the then-existing code and to develop the code further. As a result, the working group decided to propose a new Corporate Governance Code for Listed Companies (the "Code"), which was first published on 20 October 2008 and approved by the Board of the Finnish Securities Market Association on the same day. The Code shall become effective on 1 January 2009 and, apart from certain exceptions, replace the currently existing Corporate Governance