In March 2019, the Corporate Governance Group of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced “the release of a new empirical study on the performance of its investment portfolio which demonstrates the clear link between corporate governance and IFC clients’ financial performance, development outcomes and environmental and social performance.
Using client surveys and portfolio financial, economic, and development outcome data, IFC tested the hypothesis that better corporate governance is associated with better performance over a defined period. The findings show that selecting companies with better corporate governance policies and practices correlates with a lower credit risk for IFC. They also demonstrate that investing time and resources in improving a company’s corporate governance is associated with higher financial and economic returns for IFC and its clients. And importantly, the findings show that good corporate governance is also associated with improved environmental and social performance.”
You may read more and download the report from the Corporate Governance page of the IFC internet site.