Transparency, accountability and information disclosure by Bulgarian companies are encouraged under a new National Code for Corporate Governance (NCCG) that was presented at a meeting on October 9.

The code is only advisable, but all companies in Bulgaria, willing to comply with its rules, are invited to join the initiative, Dnevnik daily newspaper said in a report from the meeting that took place at Sofia’s Sheraton Hotel.

The NCCG would replace the currently existing Corporate Governance Code (CGC) that has so far only applied to some of the companies traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE).

Companies listed on the official segment of the stock exchange market had to comply with the CGC.

The code brought together the best practices in typical situations related to corporate governance. Such codes are like guidelines and are not obligatory, but the businesses in countries with CGC are to abide by them.
Usually, CGCs are mandatory only for companies that are traded on the stock exchanges. In such a case, abiding by the rules in a CGC is a requirement for listing the company on the bourse.

Financial Supervision Commission chairman Apostol Apostolov said on October 9, as quoted by Dnevnik that because of the required implementation of the European Commission (EC) corporate transparency directives, some parts of the NCCG would be added to the respective Bulgarian legislation and would thus become obligatory.

The draft version of the new NCCG can be downloaded at http://download.bse-sofia.bg/pdf/Codeks.pdf (pdf file)