Title: Corporate secrecy: the final barrier to corporate governance

Authors: Robert Chambers

Addresses: AssetRisk Advisory Inc., 25 Adelaide Street East, 19th Floor, Toronto M5C 3A1, Canada

Abstract: Recent improvements in corporate governance such as SOX in the USA will not prevent the reoccurrence of corporate disasters such as Enron. The final barrier to effective corporate governance is corporate secrecy, and boards of directors working alone are unable to solve the problem. The solutions to corporate secrecy entail enhanced transparency and deterrence accompanied by elimination of the tools of corporate secrecy.

Keywords: corporate secrecy; deterrence; fraud; governance securities; money laundering; SOX; transparency; Zaibatsu; corporate governance; board of directors; corporate culture; short-term goals; financial cliques; financial statements; trading practices; related-party transactions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2006.009407

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2006 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.43 - 53

Published online: 30 Mar 2006 *

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