Central Bank of Bahrain - Proposed New Regulation on Board Attendance

The CBB issued a consultation paper on 6 January with comments due by 30 January.

The proposal would make two main changes to the CBB's Module HC  "High Level Controls" which specifies corporate governance principles as well as the approval process for certain positions.

1. Board members would be required to attend 75% of all board meetings.  Attendance by video or telephone conference would constitute attendance as well as in person attendance.  The CBB encourages banks to amend their constitutional documents to allow video or telephone conference attendance at board meetings.
   
2. Publication of individual director attendance at (a) time of re-election (b) quarterly on the financial firm's website and (c) annually in the bank's audited financials details of each committee - number of meetings and attendance of individual directors.

Presumably, the consultation document evidences the CBB's concern that directors are not participating at a sufficient level in board meetings.