Using Latent Semantic Analysis techniques to analyse the corporate governance codes of 23 EU nations, we obtain a number of new findings regarding their thematic content, variability, and convergence. We determine that these codes can be decomposed into five common themes, with substantial cross-sectional variability in their relative importance. We also find that the themes contained in these codes cluster in ways that are not fully consistent with the legal regime classifications of La Porta et al. (1997), leading us to construct two new country clusters. We further discover that the identity of the code issuer (e.g., government versus stock exchange) is important in explaining a code's primary theme as well as changes in theme prominence over time. Finally, we fail to find evidence of an unchecked thematic convergence towards an Anglo-Saxon model of corporate governance, with some code themes converging to UK practices while others diverge.We would like to thank an anonymous referee for detailed and insightful comments. We are also grateful for helpful comments from participants at the FMA 2008 meeting in Dallas, TX. Correspondence: Stephen P. Ferris.

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For the last years, Ukraine and particulalry its financial sector were seeking to gradually apply and comply with EU standards. Latest with the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in 2014 the transition towards EU standards has a formal basis. Since then, Ukraine – with strong support from the EU – is in the process of implementing legislative and regulatory measures in order to comply with this Agreement. Against this background, this contribution wants to shed some light into Ukraine’s efforts as well as to explain some of the complexities of this process by providing an in-depth background of the current Ukrainian banking regulation, its economics and the challenges of complying with new EU standards.

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