Little Boardroom Dissent

• Main Authors: Cheah, Chor Sooi, Hasnah, Haron
• Format: Bulletin
• Language: English
• Published: Focus Malaysia 2016
• Subjects: HF Commerce
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/14399/1/Independent-Directors-Little-boardroom-dissent.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/14399/; http://www.minda.com.my/data/2016/09/Independent-Directors-Little-boardroom-dissent.pdf

Early last month, Bank Negara Malaysia mandated that boards of banks have a majority of independent directors who should not serve for more than nine years. At last count, only five of the 10 listed banking groups have a majority of independent directors, and three have equal numbers of independent and non-independent ones. Of the 83 directors, 43 or 52% were independent. So how do listed blue chips compare with the banking groups? Research by FocusM shows that 20 of the boards of the 30 FBMCI companies have a majority of non-independent directors, and only 10 with more independent ones. Overall, only 50%, or 137 of the 274 directors, are independent. Broadly, 51 (18.6%) are executive directors, mostly CEOs and managing directors, and 223 (81.4%) are non-executive directors who are either independent or non-independent.