Governance legislation since the Great Crash of 1929 has largely been enacted in response to corporate excess. Arguably, the objective of the legislation has had more to do with reassuring the public than reducing risk.
Most authorities point to the UK Cadbury report (1992) as the source of our modern ideas of corporate governance. The Cadbury report was a reaction to the collapse of BCCI, Polly Peck and Maxwell Communications. Like much of the corporate governance legislation to follow, the resultant Cadbury Code was responding to executive excess.
Australia’s Bosch Report (1995) followed the collapse of Rothwells, Elders, Bond Corporation, Tricontinental, Pyramid and Quintex. The unfettered actions of mavericks such as Laurie Connell, John Eliot, Alan Bond, Christopher Skase are now part of corporate legend.
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