A Primer on Corporate Governance: Spain

Spain has a civil law-based legal system, and court decisions

are not a source of law but are of interpretative value. The

privatization of large state-owned firms, liberalization, integration

with the European Union, and the launch of the euro have

all contributed to the transformation of Spain’s financial system

into a modern market. This book covers the main features

of the Spanish model of corporate governance and will help

you understand the characteristics of a civil law and a bank-oriented

financial system in which banks play an active role

relative to markets.

For example, the bank orientation within Spain is built so

that the corporate governance system relies heavily on the

internal mechanisms of governance. Spain also bypasses the

standard procedures of controlling shareholders mitigating

conflicts between management and minority shareholders;

instead, Spain allows controlling shareholders to mitigate the

conflict between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders.

Each chapter provides an inside look at the functioning

of both internal and external mechanisms of corporate control.