5

Board composition

5.1

The principles of good governance should apply to all boards, including parent and subsidiary companies. A cornerstone of best practice is for the non-executives to be able to hold management to account effectively and to ensure that the executives are discharging their responsibilities properly. The board should include a sufficient number and quality of non-executives who are independent and who between them have sufficient breadth of understanding of the firm’s business to provide effective challenge to the executives.

5.2

In the case of listed firms, established best practice is that at least half of the board, excluding the chair, is comprised of independent non-executives, but even smaller firms should ensure that they have at least two independent non-executives.

5.3

The PRA also expects firms to have a non-executive chair who is independent on appointment, in line with the Corporate Governance Code.[6] Where this is not the case, the firm should be able to explain how its governance arrangements will otherwise satisfy the need for independent oversight of the executives.

Footnotes