Study on the compliance with the 2020 Code : The Committee raises the awareness of the listed companies
Every two years, GUBERNA and the FEB carry out a study of compliance with the provisions of the 2020 Belgian Code on Corporate Governance. In particular, this study enables the Corporate Governance Committee to understand how Belgian listed companies and their boards make use of the flexibility offered by the "comply or explain" principle of the 2020 Code.
The latest survey on 2022 annual reports shows that Belgian listed companies apply an average of 93.8% of the provisions of the 2020 Code. In 5.9% of cases, companies apply the "comply or explain" principle and provide an explanation to justify any deviation. Finally, only 0.3% of the Code's provisions are deviated from, without this being duly justified by an explanation in the annual report.
The Corporate Governance Committee acknowledges the clear progress made in two years: in 2020, the percentage of deviations for which no explanation was provided was still 4%. There is also a positive trend in the quality of the explanations provided: the proportion of non-qualitative explanations has fallen from 12.3% in 2020 to 3.1% in 2022. To raise the awareness of the companies on this matter, the Committee has sent individual letters to all Belgian listed companies in the three main indices (BEL 20, BEL Mid, BEL Small).
Study report - Compliance with the 2020 Belgian Code on Corporate Governance (Dutch) Study report - Compliance with the 2020 Belgian Code on Corporate Governance (French)