Corporate governance conference gets underway in Toronto

8 June 2010

The annual conference of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) began in Toronto yesterday (June 7th) with a keynote address from Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty.

Running until Wednesday, the conference is entitled The Changing Global Balances and will also feature contributions from members of the Royal Bank of Canada, the University of Toronto and the Association of British Insurers.

Issues such as boardroom communication, executive remuneration and shareholder stewardship will be debated at the event, which follows the ICGN's mid-year conference at London's Guildhall in March.

Speaking before his keynote speech yesterday, Mr Flaherty told reporters in Toronto he would like to see global leaders work to accelerate the pace of financial reform.

In comments reported by the Canadian Press, he said: "We shouldn't be distracted by bank levies and those kinds of issues, which don't cut to the chase.

"The Chase is decreasing the likelihood of reckless risk-taking which we saw a couple of years ago."