The article describes the methods of financial and economic examinations to determine the insolvency of a company in the Baltic countries, Republic of Armenia, Ukraine, Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Republic of Kazakhstan. The signs of insolvency regulated in legislation of the countries, and international requirements for the validation of expert methods are presented in the article. The authors present the results of a comparative analysis of the considered methods for assessing insolvency and results of testing methods based on data of annual reports of focus group of five Latvian bankrupt companies. The research has shown that the expert methods of all eight countries are based on a normative approach — comparing the calculated financial ratios with their normative value. In Ukraine, Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Republic of Kazakhstan, the financial ratios and their normative values are approved in the legislation of the countries. In the Baltic countries and Republic of Armenia, these ratios and their values are developed in approved expert methodologies. The method of «net assets» is also used to assess the solvency of large companies. The test results showed that the methods of the countries reviewed are applicable in practice and give a similar assessment of the solvency of companies as a whole. More similar results present the methods of the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Republic of Belarus. The results of the methods of Republic of Armenia, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation are more similar to each other, but slightly differ from the previously listed group of countries. The authors demonstrated the ability to validate the expert methods, which is necessary to use an expert conclusion on the assessment of insolvency as an evidence base in another country.

Over the past decade, dividend policy has become a fundamental element of the financial strategy of joint-stock companies, as it has a direct impact primarily on the corporate governance of the company. It can be considered that dividend payments are most often connected not with financial indicators, but with a significant improvement of the quality of corporate governance in the company, i.e. dividend payments are more likely an element of corporate governance. In essence, the high quality of corporate governance somewhat reduces the likelihood of making the wrong decision. To the qualitative indicators, showing the status of the company the quality corporate governance can be added for the assessment of the bankruptcy of economic entities. If the quality of corporate governance is considered as a new one, added to the composition of qualitative indicators, then in general a number of signs indicating the pre-bankrupt state of the economic entity and not reflected in the financial statements can be offered. Timely disclosure of information is accepted as the most important factor in improving corporate governance, which allows investors to reliably assess investment risks and compare practice with these results. Certain features are directly related to the structural elements of the company’s dividend policy, since contributing to the realization of the rights and interests of shareholders, the dividend policy occupies a major place in the corporate governance system of companies.

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The article is devoted to the economic analysis of the so-called "existence of actual insolvency" in case of deliberate and false company bankruptcy. Approaches to value determination of market capitalization of an economic entity are considered, capital structure analysis and capitalization mechanisms are presented. It is emphasized that interest in this issue is justified taking into account the generation of corporate capital of emerging markets and development of capital market mechanisms. Following basic mechanisms influencing change capitalization are considered: speculative, brand, marketing, environmental, regional, as well as informative. It is demonstrated that, in practice, the forecasting of cash flows is carried out taking into account existing investment projects or company business plans by extrapolation of future cash flows for previous periods, while the indicator of used cash flows is important, and not the indicator of actual profit. Specifics of financial and economic examinations carried out in the context of both criminal cases on crimes directed against economic activity and those appointed by courts that relate to determination the amount of damage caused to a debtor or creditors as a result of the economic activities of the subjects are highlighted. The solution of the problem debated in the article can be realized only if as a result of the economic analysis the so-called concept of "existence of actual insolvency" the main causal factors affecting the market value of a company and the magnitudes of their influence will be considered separately. Thus, the approach proposed by the author will allow competent authorities initiating performing of expert researche to have a body of evidence regarding of caused damage in a large amount to a debtor or creditors as a result of deliberate or false bankruptcy.