45% of Asian firms lack data security disclosures in annual reports

A sizeable 36% still don’t have a whistleblowing medium.

Asian companies are getting better in terms of corporate disclosure, but many still need to improve their risk disclosure practices, according to a study by advisory firm FTI Consulting.

The Asia Disclosure Index, which focused on the corporate disclosure standards of 330 publicly-listed corporations in eight Asian jurisdictions, revealed that companies averaged 6.4 out of 10 in Voluntary Disclosure and 2.4 out of 4 in Board Quality. However, they also scored an average of 3 out of 5 in Risk Disclosure, particularly in cybersecurity and data security.

Whilst 71% of the 330 companies provide some information on risk metrics and mitigation, less than half (45%) do not provide any information regarding cybersecurity or data security risk mitigation in their annual reports. Less than two-fifths (36%) do not include a whistleblowing medium in their company websites or reports.

Thirty-two percent have sustainability reports that do not meet internationally recognised benchmarks such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. But in Hong Kong, more than four out of five (82%) of companies provide sustainability information in accordance with GRI or other recognised standards, the highest in all of the jurisdictions surveyed.

On the other hand, 23 (7%) of the companies surveyed were classified as corporate disclosure champions with Composite Disclosure scores of 10/10. Nine came from Malaysia, five from India, four from Singapore, three from Thailand, and one each from Hong Kong and the Philippines. Ten out of the 23 corporations were in the banking and finance sector.