SINGAPORE, Nov 6 — The media has an important role to play in informing and educating shareholders, especially retail investors, said Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) managing director Ravi Menon.
“Institutional investors have access to good quality paid research on corporates and are able to make informed decisions. Retail investors rely a lot on media reports,” he said in his opening speech at the Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS) Corporate Governance Conference on Monday (Nov 6).
Menon laid out three suggestions for media reporting on listed companies, one of them was to “pay more attention to governance aspects.”
“Do not stop at headline financial performance for the past year which may not mean much if the company does not have good governance to sustain it this year.”
The managing director also suggested for the media to “call out questionable and unsatisfactory disclosures.”
“This will make companies think twice and read their market announcements thrice before issuance.”
Another suggestion was to “highlight good governance and disclosure practices.”
“Reporting could even probe why such practices could not be adopted for peer-listed companies.”
Menon expressed his hope to see the day when media reports on company annual results focus on substantive performance and strategy issues “rather than just how much the chief executive officer is being paid.”
“Transparency on management remuneration is important but it is not the most important thing in evaluating a company’s performance,” he said.
— Bernama
