PSBank bags ICD award

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), a member of the Metrobank Group, has won a silver award from the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) in the 2009 Corporate Governance Scorecard (CGS) project for publicly-listed companies (PLCs).

PLCs are rated based on their performance relative to a set of corporate governance criteria, including policies and practices relating to rights of shareholders, equitable treatment of shareholders, role and responsibilities of stakeholders, and disclosure and transparency.

The ICD uniquely adopted a “person on the street approach” in validating the scorecards. This approach underscores the principle that any ordinary investor, even without any special access to information other than what is available to the general public, should be able to make a judgment about the corporate governance practices of any corporation. 

Thus, PLC’s scores are greatly affected by how much the corporation discloses to the general public through its various disclosures to regulators, updates and write-ups in their corporate websites and corporate reports.  

The project aims to raise standards of corporate governance practices by ensuring compliance to minimum regulatory requirements. It also encourages the adoption of recognized international standards of corporate governance practices.

The sector on banks scored the highest among all the listed companies with 17 banks participating in the program. This is reportedly due to the tight oversight and supervision being undertaken by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The CGS project is a joint undertaking of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Institute of Internal Auditors of the Philippines, the Ateneo Law School, and the ICD.