Corporate Governance in ASEAN Financial Corporations: reality or illusion?

According to Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia, Singapore has the best corporate governance practices in Asia. Malaysia has had the biggest improvements in governance overtime. Thailand lags behind both in achieving appropriate governance. This paper considers recent developments in corporate governance through the analysis of the corporate websites of financial corporations in these countries. The study finds that the corporate governance practices of Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean financial corporations are consistent with international best practices. Corporate governance as presented in company documents probably does not actually reflect real corporate governance practices. These practices do not have an impact on company performance. The level of corporate governance reported is also not consistent with the ratings from international financial institutions such as Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia and Standard & Poor’s. These findings suggest that corporate governance in ASEAN is more illusion than fact.