Do Pakistani Corporate Governance reforms restore the relationship of trust on banking sector through good governance and disclosure practices

Abstract

Trust is the focal point of this thesis. Trust is an integral part of capitalist economics and, therefore, corporate governance. The relationship of trust serves as a bond and brings together different individuals of diverse interests to work along to fulfil their objectives. But in the last two decades, this relationship of trust badly shaken due to various reasons. In order to resort the bond of trust, policymakers in different jurisdictions have developed and introduced various policies and procedures. The same effort has been made by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), as it developed and implemented the country first Corporate Governance Code in 2002 and revised them twice in 2012 and 2017. But making rules, regulations, procedures and policies are only one aspect of restoring the relationship of trust. The rules can be made very strong and as fancy as possible, but only the implementation, compliance, and actions make them effective. Therefore, this paper empirically examines and evaluates the SECP Corporate Governance Code and tries to find out to what degree the SECP has succeeded in restoring the relationship of trust. The study has developed a Governance Disclosure Quality Index (GQI) using guidelines identified in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2006). In contrast with the previous studies in Corporate Governance domains, which mainly examined and compared the Corporate Governance practices between developing and developed countries, this study examines and compares the Corporate Governance practices within a single country, but in three different time periods. The research's main findings show that the Governance Disclosure Quality of the Pakistani listed banks in their annual reports enhanced (and so trust) after each revision of the SECP Corporate Governance Code.