Full entry into force of the Portuguese Institute of Corporate Governance's Corporate Governance Code

Companies with shares listed on regulated market - Transition to a self-regulatory model of corporate governance

On March 19, 2018, the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários, hereinafter CMVM) issued a release regarding the repeal of CMVM' Corporate Governance Code of 2013 with effects from 1 January 2018, as well as the full entry into force of the Portuguese Institute of Corporate Governance's Corporate Governance Code (Instituto Português de Corporate Governance, hereinafter IPCG and IPCG Code), amidst the conclusion of the process of transition to a self-regulatory model of corporate governance.

Notwithstanding the Protocol between CMVM and IPCG having being concluded on 03 October 2017, its entry into force was conditional upon the definition of a monitoring scheme of IPCG Code, which was established by way of a protocol executed on 23 February 2018 between the IPCG and the Listed Securities Issuers Association (Associação de Empresas Emitentes de Valores Cotados em Mercado).

Following the establishment of the monitoring scheme of IPCG Code, this shall be used as the reference for purposes of governance report for financial periods initiated on 01 January 2018, being 2017 the last year in which the Governance Code of CMVM of 2013 shall be considered for purposes of corporate governance report by companies with shares listed in regulated markets.

With the conclusion of the transition to a new self-regulatory model of corporate governance, CMVM will from now on focus in matters regarding the supervision of corporate governance that is unable to delegate, such as the control of the quality of the information disclosed by issuers on corporate governance, as well as the performance of the recent competences vested in CMVM in this respect, namely in the context of gender balanced representation in management and supervisory bodies of listed companies (Decree-Law no. 62/2017, of 1 August).

Relevant links:

Protocol entered between CMVM and IPCG
Protocol entered between and IPCG and the Partnership of Issuers of Listed Securities