Ensuring that boards devote sufficient time discussing strategy and driving shareholder value, rather than dealing with compliance issues, remains a key challenge for directors, warns Graeme Hunt, chairman of gas and electricity company AGL Energy.

Twelve months after directors of financial services companies were blasted in the final report of the Hayne royal commission for multiple oversight failures, boards are spending an increasing amount of time on compliance and risk, particularly the plethora of non-financial risks facing companies, such as the risk of failing to treat customers fairly.