China Banking Corporation (China Bank) was again one of the top winners in the Philippines at the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) Awards of the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) for the 2019 assessment year.

The ACGS Awards is organized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD).

China Bank was conferred the Top 3 Philippine Publicly Listed Company (PLC) Award, the Top 20 ASEAN PLC Award, and the ASEAN Asset Class Award.

“We often say that good corporate governance is in China Bank’s DNA. The principle of doing what’s right and doing right by our stakeholders is an intrinsic part of the Bank’s corporate culture that it guides all our strategies, decisions, and actions,” said China Bank Chairman Hans T. Sy.

He added that, “It’s the foundation of the Bank’s success and resilience for the last 100 years and future sustainability; and in difficult times such as these, it’s our anchor, our boon.”

The ACMF assessed and ranked all PLCs in the participating ASEAN countries according to their overall ACGS scores.

For the Top 20 ASEAN PLC Award, given to the top 20 companies with the highest ACGS scores in the region, four are from the Philippines, including China Bank and SM Prime.

Out of the top 20 in ASEAN, ACMF ranked the top 3 highest scoring PLCs per country: China Bank, Ayala Land, and Globe for the Philippines.

Those that obtained a score of 97.5 points and above (which is at least 75 percent of the maximum attainable score of 130) received an ASEAN Asset Class Award.

Of the 135 recipients, 18 are from the Philippines, including seven SM Group companies: China Bank, 2Go, BDO, Belle Corp., Premium Leisure, SMIC, and SM Prime.

This is the second time that China Bank was named by the ACMF as one of the best-governed companies in the region. In 2018, China Bank ranked among the top 11 to 30 among the top 50 PLCs in ASEAN, and one of the top 3 PLCs in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, ICD, the domestic ranking body for the ACGS, conferred a 4-Arrow Recognition to China Bank at ICD’s Golden Arrow Awarding in 2019.

The four-arrow recognition represents the Bank’s achievement of scoring 110 to 119 points out of the 130 highest possible points in the 2018 ACGS.

The ACGS is an assessment based on publicly-available information and benchmarked against international best practices on corporate governance. This is supported by a rigorous methodology developed by corporate governance experts across the region to assess the corporate governance standing and performance of publicly listed companies in the six participating ASEAN Member Countries namely: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

“At China Bank, our strong emphasis on corporate governance enables us to build enduring relationships with generations of customers and shareholders. The sustained high levels of customer trust and investor confidence underpin our continued profitability, allowing us to consistently deliver shareholder and stakeholder value,” said Sy.(James A. Loyola)