The Governance and Transparency Index (GTI) is jointly launched by The Business Times (BT) and the Corporate Governance & Financial Reporting Centre (CGFRC). The GTI, which is sponsored by CPA Australia and supported by the Investment Management Association of Singapore, will replace the Corporate Transparency Index (CTI), which assessed the financial transparency of companies based on their annual announcements and which had been published by BT since 2000.

The index is divided into two broad sections: governance and transparency (including investor relations) with the maximum points for each section being 75 and 25 respectively.

The governance section covers the following items:

Board Matters
Remuneration Matters
Accountability and Audit  

The transparency section focuses on how companies communicate with their shareholders.

In addition, the index includes a "bonus and penalty" system where companies which go beyond the requirements of the code (e.g., by including limits on directorships held by the their directors) will be awarded additional points while negative events (e.g., directors or management resigning and raising corporate governance concerns) will lead to a deduction in the company's GTI score.

To advise the CGFRC on the index methodology, an advisory panel has been established comprising of one representative each from BT and CPA Australia and prominent personalities in the corporate sector. The members of the advisory panel are:

• Mr Andrew Kwek, Chief Executive Officer, Head, Institutional Sales SE Asia, Deutsche Asset Management (Asia) Limited
• Mrs Lee Suet Fern, Senior Director, Stamford Law Corporation
• Mr Loh Hoon Sun, Managing Director, Philip Securities Pte Ltd
• Mr Chaly Mah, President, CPA Australia Singapore Division and CEO, Deloitte Asia Pacific
• Mr Alvin Tay, Editor, The Business Times

Click here to view the GTI methodology and scorecard

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