To the surprise of some, French financial markets regulator AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers) published a report on 30 March that compared the French corporate governance code, the AFEP/MEDEF code, with nine codes from other European countries: Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The AFEP/MEDEF code was set up by two French business associations—the Association Française des Entreprises Privies and the Mouvement des Entreprises de France.
While the AMF has published a report on corporate governance and executive pay—which sets out recommendations for French companies and industry bodies—this is the first time it has published a study of this kind, especially one that is relatively critical of the AFEP/MEDEF code—which, incidentally, is the only one of the 10 codes that was drawn up by the companies themselves and their representatives, without the involvement of a key stakeholder such as investors. In contrast, for example, the group that wrote the German code is made up largely of academics, followed by companies, then equal portions of trades unions, followed by small and large investors.
