STRONG industry opposition emerged yesterday to a draft code of corporate governance for Guernsey’s financial services sector.

At the latest Institute of Directors winter series of seminars, which was covering the responsibilities of directors, discussion turned to what members of the finance and legal communities made of the code, which closed for consultation earlier this month.

A show of hands in the 100-plus audience revealed almost all of them would prefer guidelines as opposed to a code that would operate on a ‘comply or explain [why not]’ basis.

Another show of hands established that those present preferred not to have to adhere to an additional code when they were already subjected to a higher level of corporate governance such as the UK Combined Code or the AIC Code.

Members of the finance community, including Guernsey International Business Association chairman Paul Meader, who sat in on the debate as a panellist, also criticised the draft for being geared towards the regulator as opposed to shareholders.

IoD committee member Carol Goodwin (pictured) led the practitioner working party behind the drafting process of the code with assistance from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.

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