During the meeting, pressing issues in the field of corporate law were identified, and proposals for their resolution were put forward for discussion.
Tatiana Sizova, the Business Ombudsman of Moscow, emphasized the strategic importance of this new platform. She noted that corporate law is the foundation of business activity, and that the quality and predictability of corporate governance directly affect the investment climate and the protection of property rights.
Key issues raised for discussion:
- Experts discussed problems related to the protection of corporate rights. The legislation lacks a clear list of methods for protecting corporate rights and unified time limits for challenging corporate decisions. Participants noted discrepancies in limitation periods depending on the specific law, as well as gaps concerning the challenge of void decisions.
- Participants noted that the current Corporate Governance Code of 2014 is outdated. It does not account for modern realities of corporate governance, such as the growth of IPOs, the evolving role of boards of directors (including a reduction in the number of independent directors), and the impact of digitalization.
- Experts identified problems related to confidentiality when interacting with banks, the vague definition of beneficiaries, and uncertainty regarding the subsidiary liability of founders of personal funds.
- Participants discussed the possibility of enshrining in legislation the concept of a "lost shareholder" and the criteria for defining one, introducing a mandatory search procedure, as well as a mechanism for buying out shares at market value with the deposit of funds with a notary.
Special attention was paid to digital transformation. Participants discussed the potential of using artificial intelligence to analyze law enforcement practices, identify systemic problems, and process business inquiries.
Work on formulating proposals will continue at subsequent meetings of the working group.
