Time to step up and take a stand on corporate governance issues, the SC tells institutional investors

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) wants shareholders, particularly institutional investors, to take more affirmative action to ensure public-listed companies (PLCs) on Bursa Malaysia practise good governance. “From the SC’s perspective, institutional investors play a critical role in driving good corporate governance (CG) in the country. From our observation, there are some opportunities for improvement in various aspects of stewardship,” the capital market regulator says in an email response to questions from The Edge. For one, it wants to see more transparency with regards to the discharge of institutional investors’ stewardship role. “There is recognition that institutional investors have been engaging investee companies on governance issues, but information on the issues discussed and the outcome of their engagement are limited,” it says.