The Gold Standard Award For Good Governance

The winner: The Securities Investors Association (Singapore)

The Securities Investors Association (Singapore) represents the interests of minority shareholders, recognising that good corporate governance is the key to the integrity of corporations, financial institutions and markets; central to economic well-being and stability; a means to protect investors and ensure long-term value for all stakeholders; and results in enhanced performance. In accordance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the SIAS also recognises that investors play a key role in the promotion of good corporate governance.

Listed companies usually regard good corporate governance practices as costly and merely pay lip service to them by complying with the letter – rather than the spirit – of the law. However, there is now empirical evidence that companies known for good corporate governance attract investment capital. To meet the changing global landscape in the aftermath of the latest financial crisis, SIAS and its industry partners launched Singapore Corporate Governance Week 2010 (4-8 October. 2010) to create greater awareness of the importance of improving corporate governance standards and to provide a platform to bring together regulators, the Singapore Exchange and Monetary Authority of Singapore, the “big four” accounting firms, corporate lawyers and corporate governance practitioners. The key activities of the week were as follows:

2nd Asian Investors’ Corporate Governance Conference: 
Under the theme “Challenges in Asia’s Capital Markets”, the conference, endorsed by OECD, attracted international experts who discussed corporate governance challenges in Asia; corporate governance in the light of the recent global financial crisis; the changing global landscape; and the views of regulators, from lessons learnt from Australian boardrooms, to corporate governance developments in China and Japan, and the role of auditors in effective corporate governance.

Singapore Corporate Governance Award: 
Designed to recognise companies which have gone the extra mile in promoting good corporate governance and transparency and which meet both the letter and spirit of the Singapore Corporate Governance Code, the Singapore Corporate Governance Award, now in its 11th year, was incorporated into the Corporate Governance Week.

Most Transparent Company Award: 
This award, based on key criteria such as timeliness; substantiality and clarity of news releases; degree of media access; frequency of dissemination of corporate results; and availability of segmental information and communication channels, encourages listed companies to be more transparent in order to assist investors to make informed decisions.

Financial Journalist of the Year Award: 
This aims to recognise the work of financial journalists who have impacted on the investment community with their financial stories and helped investors to make informed decisions, with most retail investors relying heavily on the media for information as they have only limited access to analytical and financial reports.

Corporate Governance Statement of Support: 
A first for Singapore and launched as part of the Singapore Corporate Governance Week 2010, the Corporate Governance Statement of Support consists of listed companies and other professional bodies pledging to support good corporate governance standards. To date, 82 companies have taken the pledge.