Position statement
The financial and ethical failures of a few public companies in recent years left lingering questions about how companies govern themselves and conduct their business. Sustaining effective corporate governance is imperative for every publicly traded company. IBM's management system is based on a consistent set of global operating standards and objectives. IBM has a long-standing commitment to ethics, integrity and management oversight with a Board of Directors that is overwhelmingly independent.
Politicians and regulators in the US and Europe reacted to the failures of various public companies by introducing new regulatory requirements such as those prescribed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the European Corporate Governance Action Plan. In the US, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and the Securities and Exchange Commission vigilantly watch over publicly-traded companies to ensure compliance with the enhanced requirements. The European Commission has adopted a better regulation initiative whereby proposals will be vetted as to their impact. In the EU the Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy will engage in corporate governance issues when there is a compelling economic reason.
A critical step to rebuilding investor confidence is strict compliance with applicable global and local laws. The Governmental Programs Enterprise Team partners with IBM Legal and Treasury worldwide to ensure that IBM remains in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. We also work to minimize instances of overreaching that lack reasonable policy aims but adversely affect our business.
Additional resources
Documents
- Consultation on future priorities for the Action Plan on modernising company law and enhancing corporate governance in the European Union (107KB)
- Basel II: CEBS consultation on Standards on Outsourcing (201KB)
- EU Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (160KB)
- EU Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base-International aspects (233KB)
- ARC postponement transparency (28KB)
- ARC postponement prospectus (28KB)
- Principles of Corporate Governance (207KB)
- European Commission White Paper on Financial Services (88KB)
- Business Roundtable on Corporate Governance, 2005 (129KB)
- Corporate Governance (64KB)
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2008 IBM Corporate Responsibility Report
Learn how our business and citizenship strategies have merged in the 2008 IBM Corporate Responsibility Report.