NRW.BANK is committed to transparent and responsible corporate governance.
NRW.BANK funds itself in the international capital market, where it is firmly anchored. Therefore, and in order to act responsibly towards local policy-makers, funding recipients, municipalities and the public, NRW.BANK is committed to good public corporate governance.
NRW.BANK was one of the first public-sector companies in Germany to endorse a transparent code of responsible corporate governance. Based on its own Public Corporate Governance Code, which takes into account the specific requirements of the Bank, NRW.BANK has voluntarily committed itself to good corporate governance since 2006.
In the same year, the Bank also appointed a Corporate Governance Officer.
In the past years, NRW.BANK continuously examined the consequences that arise from changes in the legal framework relating to public corporate governance. This includes, in particular, the refinement of the respective rules for listed joint stock companies and the adoption of separate rules for public-sector companies. Moreover, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia decided to develop a dedicated Public Corporate Governance Code for public-law enterprises and for investments held by the government, which was adopted by the North Rhine-Westphalian government on March 19, 2013.
The Public Corporate Governance Code of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia thus explicitly opens up the possibility for enterprises owned by the government of NRW to subject themselves to their own Code which reflects their specific public mission and is comparable with the North Rhine-Westphalian Code. In this case, the latter Code is not applied. NRW.BANK has taken advantage of this possibility, revised its own Code and developed a set of rules that is comparable with the North Rhine-Westphalian Code. Just like the latter Code, NRW.BANK’s Code aims to make corporate governance transparent and comprehensible, while at the same time taking into account the specific public mission and the particularities of a competition-neutral and largely budget-independent development bank under public law. Accordingly, both the legally framed remit of NRW.BANK and the regulations under institutional law and banking supervision are taken into account.
The amended Code came into force on January 1, 2014.
The Code addresses the Bank’s bodies (Managing Board, Supervisory Board, Board of Guarantors), the cooperation between the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board, transparency in the broader sense and finally aspects of accounting, auditing and governmental control.
NRW.BANK does not regard the Code as a rigid set of rules and regulations but intends to adapt it to future developments.