Corporate Governance in Banking short analysis

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, is one of the world’s largest multilateral lenders. Headquartered in Luxembourg, and with more than 60 years' experience and expertise in project financing, the EIB is a leading international financial institution (IFI) and development financial institution (DFI). It compares itself against other global and regional multilateral lenders. The EIB Secretary General would like to facilitate a review of the EIB’s approach to the composition of the Board of Directors and understand how this compares with that of peer organisations as well as applicable best practice standards. The EIB has therefore commissioned your team, a reputable leading corporate governance consultancy, to support on this review. In particular, the EIB would like your team to analyse and propose recommendations where necessary across the following dimensions, after considering the practices of at least 2 sensibly chosen peer organisations: Board size; Mix of knowledge, skills and experience on the Board; Presence of Board members who are independent from EIB shareholders/members and management; Diversity. The above is a minimum list of analytical areas. The EIB is open to your team analysing any other dimensions that may be useful; for instance, the approach to Board tenures and term limits is an analytical area of interest if there is adequate disclosure of practices. It is also important to note that the EIB is focused on the board of directors and not the board of governors, management committees or alternate directors. Given this scope, the EIB Secretary General would like your team to prepare a brief report of no more than 6 pages. The report may however be complemented with relevant appendices to which there is no limit on the number of pages. The report should be presented in a word document and be as visual as possible. It should include comparative analyses of relevant practices and data using graphs, charts, or tables as required. Crucially, the report should not be merely descriptive but offer useful, well-considered, and properly founded recommendations. The EIB also wants to be provided with the supporting excel file used to create any graphs/charts and the exact sources of data/research cited. You are advised that the annual reports and websites of organisations usually provide a good source of information on corporate governance practices; other external sources may also be useful.