In the wake of early twenty-first century corporate scandals, businesses and governments looked to bolster investor confidence with new regulations and legislation - putting further strictures and responsibilities on senior managers and increasing personal liabilities for non-compliance. The spate of US corporate scandals and the resulting Sarbanes-Oxley legislation has been widely reported, but the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands have all experienced similar cycles of scandal and legislation. Companies operating in the world’s largest economies now face a battery of laws, codes and standards. Achieving and maintaining compliance is costly and time-consuming, and the penalties for failing to do so, punitive and severe. Governments are no longer afraid to exercise new powers of criminal prosecution - demonstrated by newspaper pictures of handcuffed executives amid reports of lengthy prison sentences.

Against this background, directors are increasingly concerned about exposing their personal assets to possible regulatory action or litigation. And for good reason because the implementation of new accounting standards, increasing globalisation and the rise of shareholder action groups increase the intensity of directors’ and officers’ liability exposures. The good news is that with broader cover, fewer restrictions, greater provisions, more value added services and a greater emphasis on helping individual directors through critical events we have made CorporateGuard D&O even stronger than ever.