The promotion of 'Anglo-American' corporate governance in the South: who benefits from the new international standard?

In response to the recent spate of financial crises in East Asia (1997-98), the IMF has established a core set of international standards to regulate market behaviour in the global South. These standards are embodied in 11 modules that comprise the IMF's Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSCs). Both content and form of the ROSCs warrant further consideration. That said, the main objective of this paper is to explain how and why one particular ROSC, namely corporate governance, has become standardised. And, more importantly, to address the question of whose interests are served. In doing so the essay suggests that, despite the claim that the international standard of corporate governance embodies 'universal principles', the definition advanced in the ROSes intentionally draws on the Anglo-American variant. This imposed standardisation of corporate governance serves two overlapping goals. First, it seeks to stabilise the international financial system by ensuring that emerging markets adhere to the principles of a neoliberal open market economy. Second, by placing a greater emphasis on 'shareholder value' than other types of corporate governance, it protects the interests of institutional investors based in market-centric systems such as that of the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]