China Banking Corporation has maintained its regional and local standing as one of the best-governed publicly listed companies in the 2021 ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) assessments.

At the recent virtual awarding by the Institute of Corporate Governance, China Bank was recognized anew as among the Top 20 ASEAN Publicly Listed Companies, as an ASEAN Asset Class, and as one of the Top 3 Publicly Listed Companies in the Philippines.

“I congratulate my China Bank team for a job well done and share this honor with all our stakeholders. Our focus on governance underpins China Bank's strength and resilience," China Bank Chairman Hans T. Sy said.

Aside from China Bank, other SM Group companies were also cited: as an ASEAN Asset Class - 2GO, BDO, Belle Corp., SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), and SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SMPH); as one of the Top 20 ASEAN Publicly Listed Companies - SMIC and SMPH.

China Bank had clinched the same three awards for the 2019 ACGS assessments. The Bank had moved up the regional ranking since the 2017 ACGS assessments when it was among the Top 50 ASEAN Publicly Listed Companies.

It has since then been the only bank among the Top 3 Publicly Listed companies in the Philippines.

“We are grateful for again winning these distinctions. We take pride in our high governance standards and aim to constantly improve by adopting the best practices for the benefit of our stakeholders,” China Bank President William C. Whang said.

Developed by the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum and the Asian Development Bank, the ACGS is an assessment conducted every two years based on publicly available information and benchmarked against international best practices on corporate governance.

It is intended to ensure that the corporate governance climate in the ASEAN region remains competitive and conducive to the growth of businesses in the ASEAN jurisdictions.