Hurry the laggard: Singapore’s listed companies 3 years late in complying with corporate governance deadlines

Being on time is very critical.

At the current rate of progress, Singapore’s listed companies are already late in adhering to the country’s Code of Corporate Governance, particularly in the area of board independence.

According to a report by NUS, Singapore listed firms will take until 2020 to comply fully with board independence guidelines, even though companies are required to be aligned to the Code by the end of their 2017 financial year.

The report reveals that only 268 firms (41.6 per cent) have complied with the recommendations under the Code, which was last revised in 2012.

Under the revised Code, listed firms are required to appoint an independent chairman or have independent directors make up at least half the board in instances where the chairman is not an independent director. More than half of the companies examined in GTI 2014 (376 firms) have yet to meet this requirement.

Listed firms have also been slow in disclosing their executive directors' exact remuneration, especially that of the Chief Executive Officers. While the number of firms disclosing the exact pay package of their CEOs increased to 19.3 per cent from 7.8 per cent a year ago, there remains a large majority which have not done so, citing confidentiality, talent-poaching and competition as reasons behind disclosing such information.