Corporate governance steady in pandemic times: refocusing on risks and sustainability

EVEN amid the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, listed companies in Singapore are experiencing a transition on the corporate governance front. With the revised Code of Corporate Governance expected to come fully into effect by this year, companies have been aligning their practices to the new Code.

Continuing the upward trend of past years, the Singapore Governance and Transparency Index (SGTI) 2020 has once again reached an all-time high mean overall score of 67.9 points - a solid 8.6-point increase over the previous year (see Figure 1). Comparing to the previous year, the mean base scores and bonus points have risen by 3.2 and 3.0 points respectively, while the number of penalty points taken have dropped by 2.4 points. These results are commendable and point towards an improving corporate governance landscape.

The increase in mean score is evident in the score distribution over the past few years (see Figure 2), where a noticeable shift to the right can be observed. In addition, the peak of the distribution is taller this year, indicating that more companies are achieving this higher mean score compared to previous years.