Our approach to corporate governance
Members of AFM are either owned by their customers or set up on a not-for-profit basis. This means they are able to focus entirely on the best interests of their customers, because they don’t have to account to shareholders.
We believe all stakeholders in an organisation should be treated fairly and well. Setting the right tone and culture from the top ensures that this happens, and a clear position on how the organisation is governed helps customers, members, employees and suppliers understand better how the organisation achieves good outcomes.
That’s why we have developed the AFM Corporate Governance Code (version January 2019), which sets out a series of principles of good corporate governance that our members apply within their business. The Code draws on expectations of directors from a range of sources, including the relevant legislation, regulatory rules and internationally recognised standards.
We consulted on the development of the Code in October 2018, and our response to the feedback received is provided here.
Alongside the document, we have published an updated version of our note on the Duties of Directors. We have also produced an extensive NED toolkit, and are developing themed mini-toolkits on specific subjects: the first two of these to be published are on
- corporate governance:AFM NED toolkit.CorpGov
- risk: AFM NED toolkit.Risk
Other AFM Governance Documents
Prior to this, we adopted an annotated version of the UK Corporate Governance Code (for premium listed companies), and our members will report on compliance with the 2016 version of the annotated code in the 2018 report and accounts:
The Annotated Corporate Governance Code for Mutual Insurers: September 2016 *
AFM corporate governance guidance: the latest version of this guidance was produced in January 2015. It is not being updated to apply to the AFM Corporate Governance Code, but may provide useful background material.
In 2016 we launched our NED toolkit (revised January 2017). This is available to members by request; a summary is available to download. An updated version of the toolkit is in preparation.
Other documents include: