All in all, European banks have seen an increase in the number of formally independent board members over the past few years, even though some banks lag behind. In Germany in particular, supervisory boards and shareholders are prone to doubts and misunderstanding in this respect. What do supervisors really expect as regards independence?
We know that, unlike in many other countries, there is no legal duty in Germany to have independent board members. And that is a pity. So we cannot enforce anything in that regard, but we can still express our expectations. We expect supervisory boards to have a “sufficient” number of independent members because that is part of good governance.