The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) is committed to providing an efficient and transparent securities market. In an effort to increase the capacity of its monitoring and supervision system, the Exchange has created a Corporate Governance Index (CGI). The CGI is used to provide a measure as to how well an entity conforms to various principles of corporate governance and to aggregate the corporate governance of all listed companies. The CGI is maintained by the Jamaica Stock Exchange and managed by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Corporate Governance Monitoring & Evaluation Committee and reflects the regulations and standards of the JSE, as well as other practices deemed relevant to the economy.
The main objectives of the CGI are:
- To supplement the legal and regulatory corporate governance framework and thus raise the overall standard of corporate governance for companies listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange; and
- To give companies an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market.
The companies that are evaluated are constituent stocks of the Jamaica Stock Exchange Junior and Main Market. The evaluation criteria are based on international standards (e.g. OECD corporate governance principle) and utilize the companies’ annual reports, websites, meeting minutes and other documents. The designed survey questionnaire consists of 101 corporate governance questions, broken down into six (6) sections as detailed below.
A. Rights of Shareholders (SRI)
B. Equitable Treatment of Shareholders (ETI)
C. The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance (SI)
D. Disclosure and Transparency (DTI)
E. Responsibilities of the Board (BI)
F. JSE Requirements (JSE)
