Following a requirement of the local regulator, different Colombian security issuers complied with the norm, producing a corporate governance code. This article studies the effects on accounting performance and financing decisions of Colombian firms after these firms issue their own corporate governance code. It also incorporates an analysis of the code quality and the combined effect, timing and quality, on the dependent variables. The results show that the firms’ return on assets after the code introduction improves in excess of one percent; the effect is amplified by the code quality. Additionally, the firms’ leverage increased, after the code’s introduction, in excess of five percent, when the code quality is factored in the analysis. These results suggest that controlling parties commitment to self restrain, by reducing their private benefits and/or the expropriation of non controlling parties, through the code introduction, is indeed an effective measure and that the financial markets agree, increasing their funds supply to the firms.