Publication: Corporate Governance Country Assessment: Bulgaria
Loading...
Date
2008-06
ISSN
Published
2008-06
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report assesses Bulgaria's corporate governance policy framework for publicly traded companies. It highlights recent improvements to laws and regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Bulgaria. This report updates the 2002 Corporate Governance ROSC (CG ROSC). As Bulgaria continues its dynamic pace of reforms, all key stakeholders involved in the reforms process may wish to focus on the following four reform priorities: first, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) should continue to strictly enforce existing laws and may wish to focus on how the following three groups "comply or explain" with the recently issued national code of corporate governance (NCGC): (i) holding companies, in which governance practices are considered insufficient; (ii) the largest ten issuers that make-up most of the trading and market capitalization; and (iii) principal issuers on the unofficial market that are driving much of the market's growth. Second, the task force that launched the NCGC may wish to eventually review the NCGC to offer more practical guidance on how to implement good practice. Third, the government and regulators may wish to make minor amendments to the legal and regulatory framework. Fourth and finally, the most important factor to improve corporate governance will be to train and thus, over time, build a cadre of qualified, experienced, and professional directors who are empowered to ensure that the "law on the books" translates into actual practice.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2008. Corporate Governance Country Assessment: Bulgaria. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28203 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Corporate Governance Country Assessment : Vietnam(Washington, DC, 2013-08)This report assesses Vietnam's corporate governance policy framework. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Vietnam. It is an update of the 2006 Corporate Governance ROSC for Vietnam. Good corporate governance enhances investor trust, protects minority shareholders, and encourages better decision making and improved relations with workers, creditors, and other stakeholders. Better investor protection can lower the cost of capital and encourage companies to list and raise funds through equity markets. Good corporate governance also helps to ensure that these companies operate more transparently and efficiently. Vietnam has undertaken important corporate governance reforms in recent years. However protecting minority shareholders, fully tapping the potential of capital markets, and professionalizing boards and management will require that reform continues. Key reforms include: Developing an action plan to address core failings of state owned enterprise corporate governance, including replacing the current state economic groups, or SEG oriented system with one that has more accountable state ownership; and Increasing transparency with greater auditor independence, better disclosure of ownership and control, and convergence of accounting standards with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS.Publication The Russia Corporate Governance Manual : Part V. Special Focus Section(Washington, DC, 2004-09-17)The Russia corporate governance manual has been divided into and is published in six parts: (i) corporate governance introduced; (ii) good board practices; (iii) shareholder rights; (iv) information disclosure and transparency; (v) special focus section; and (vi) annexes model corporate governance documents. The first four parts contain chapters that focus on core corporate governance issues, such as a company's board structure, information disclosure practices, and shareholder rights. Part five focuses on corporate governance issues of particular importance in the Russian context, namely corporate governance concerns during a company's reorganization, within holding structures, and relating to enforcement. Part six, finally, offers practical tools in the form of model documents, for example company codes, by-laws, and contracts. All issues are closely examined through Russian law and regulations; the Federal Commission for the Securities Market's Code of Corporate Conduct (FCSM Code) Code and, when applicable, internationally recognized best practices. This manual also provides government officials, lawyers, judges, investors, and others with a framework for assessing the level of corporate governance practices in Russian companies. Finally, it serves as a reference tool for the educational institutions that will train the next generation of Russian managers, investors, and policy makers on good corporate governance practices.Publication Corporate Governance Country Assessment : Colombia(Washington, DC, 2003-08)This report assesses the corporate governance policy framework, enforcement and compliance practices in Colombia. The capital markets are small relative to the economy and trading volume is low equity trading totals about USD one million, as compared to USD one billion in fixed income trading. The corporate sector is largely owned and controlled by family groups and conglomerates. The challenge is to create an environment where medium-sized companies can raise capital in the market and help them make the transition from tightly-controlled family firms to public companies. While pension funds represent a large and rapidly growing source of funds, they are reluctant to invest in equities. It has been demonstrated across countries that capital market development correlates positively with the degree of shareholder protection and good corporate governance. Awareness of the importance of corporate governance issues is growing. Success stories of privatizations linked with good corporate governance highlight the importance of the issue. Colombia is an interesting example of the interplay between legal changes and voluntary initiatives based on the incentive to attract capital. It has put a minimum corporate governance disclosure regime in place for companies that wish to be eligible for pension fund investments. The report recommends (i) the adoption of a securities bill as proposed by the securities regulator supevalores; (ii) the adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and the creation of an independent audit oversight board; (iii) improved enforcement; (iii) enhanced monitoring of compliance with the code of good governance, for example by introducing a comply-or-explain requirement; and (iv) the creation of a director training organization.Publication Corporate Governance Country Assessment : Kenya(Washington, DC, 2007-12)Good corporate governance ensures that companies use their resources more efficiently, protects minority shareholders, leads to better decision making, and improves relations with workers, creditors, and other stakeholders. It is an important prerequisite for attracting the patient capital needed for sustained long-term economic growth. This report provides an assessment of Kenya s corporate governance policy framework. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Kenya.Publication Corporate Governance Country Assessment : El Salvador(Washington, DC, 2012-06)This report assesses El Salvador s corporate governance policy framework. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in El Salvador. The OECD Principles focus on private-sector publicly traded companies, both financial and nonfinancial, but are also applicable to other public interest entities, including banks, insurance companies, and state-owned enterprises The equity market in El Salvador is small and has not showed much growth in the past five years. Most observers blame unwieldy approval processes for new share offerings, and the predominance in the economy of small- and medium-sized family-owned companies which do not have an interest in becoming public. Given the limited depth of the market, both regulator (SSF) and stock exchange (BVES) have taken measures towards regional integration. El Salvador today is participating in a regional initiative to develop an integrated Central American capital market with Panama and Costa Rica. Good corporate governance enhances investor trust, helps to protect minority shareholders, and can encourage better decision making and improved relations with employees, creditors, and other stakeholders. It is an important prerequisite for attracting the patient capital needed for sustained long-term economic growth.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Measuring Financial Inclusion : The Global Findex Database(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04)This paper provides the first analysis of the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database, a new set of indicators that measure how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. The data show that 50 percent of adults worldwide have an account at a formal financial institution, though account penetration varies widely across regions, income groups and individual characteristics. In addition, 22 percent of adults report having saved at a formal financial institution in the past 12 months, and 9 percent report having taken out a new loan from a bank, credit union or microfinance institution in the past year. Although half of adults around the world remain unbanked, at least 35 percent of them report barriers to account use that might be addressed by public policy. Among the most commonly reported barriers are high cost, physical distance, and lack of proper documentation, though there are significant differences across regions and individual characteristics.Publication Governance Matters VIII : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008(2009-06-01)This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. These aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 35 data sources provided by 33 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The authors also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. They find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. The aggregate indicators, together with the disaggregated underlying indicators, are available at www.govindicators.org.Publication Government Matters III : Governance Indicators for 1996-2002(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08)The authors present estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. The authors assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. They present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of previous research work on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobat 1999a,b and 2002). The authors also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.Publication Governance Matters IV : Governance Indicators for 1996-2004(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.Publication Design Thinking for Social Innovation(2010-07)Designers have traditionally focused on enchancing the look and functionality of products.