Gems: valuable governance tool for retail investors

LAST week, Securities Investors Association (Singapore) (SIAS), in collaboration with The Singapore Association of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and data analytics firm Handshakes, unveiled a new corporate governance methodology which SIAS will use to screen smaller listed companies starting this year for its corporate awards.

The new system called Gems (Governance Evaluation for Mid and Small Caps) is an innovative approach to the vexing issue of how best to gauge the governance practices of smaller companies, given that what applies to bigger firms may not be wholly suitable for smaller companies.

This is because large corporates typically have institutional shareholders and boards with sufficient sophistication to provide checks and balances on management.