Published 10-09-08
Submitted by Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program
WARSAW,POLAND. - October 9, 2008 "“ Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its 11th semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. This edition of the survey was co-financed by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank Group). PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska, PFS Program Intern Tomasz Pieczyk (Poland), PFS Program Intern Nikola Smolcic (Croatia) and PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from July 1 through September 30, 2008.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the 11th time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the tenth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the ninth time. Moreover, a fifth analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for ongoing benchmarking with these emerging market peers.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this "blue-chip" peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group's CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies' disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period July 1 "“ September 15, 2008 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is September 15, 2008.
This edition of the survey documents a higher level of online disclosure of corporate governance information, continuing the trend over the past five years. More information is also disclosed in the area of social policy, compared with the previous survey published in April 2008. Disclosure of information about environmental performance and environmental standards as well as energy and water use increased, albeit from still low levels; significant progress remains to be made by most companies in disclosing detailed environmental data.
Overall, companies in BRIC outperform CEE peers in terms of the availability of English-language websites and annual reports as well as specific disclosures in all three areas. For example, 80% of the BRIC companies surveyed disclose compliance with a corporate governance code in the annual report, compared with 54% in CEE. 65% of the BRIC companies surveyed disclose information about company-specific code of business conduct/code of ethics in the annual report, compared with 16% in CEE. In general, BRIC companies also provide more information on social policy and environmental policy. However, the gap in all three areas is narrowing. Due to the lack of a number of drivers, Ukrainian companies lag behind both BRIC and CEE peers in all areas. However, the number of Ukrainian companies with English-language annual reports and websites continues to increase as does the amount of information disclosed in all three categories.
Survey findings include the following:
Starting today, the survey is available online at:
http://www.pfsprogram.org/capitalmarkets_research.php
About the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) established the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program in 1999 as a public-private partnership to help complete reforms necessary to create sound, private and well-functioning financial sectors in the eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that have since joined the European Union. In 2005, the geographical focus of the program shifted to South East Europe (SEE).
East-West Management Institute (EWMI), a New York-based not-for-profit organization, is currently the primary implementing partner.
The PFS Program is mandated to fill remaining gaps in the institutional development of the financial sector in CEE and SEE countries through regional integration and cooperation, selective technical assistance programs and the practical application of lessons learned in neighboring countries. The substantive areas covered under the PFS Program are: accounting, auditing, banking, capital markets, insurance and pension reform. For more information, please visit the PFS Program website at www.pfsprogram.org/capitalmarkets_research.php
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) established the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program in 1999 as a public-private partnership to help complete reforms necessary to create sound, private and well-functioning financial sectors in the eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that have since joined the European Union. In 2005, the geographical focus of the program shifted to South East Europe (SEE). East-West Management Institute (EWMI), a New York-based not-for-profit organization, is currently the primary implementing partner. The PFS Program is mandated to fill remaining gaps in the institutional development of the financial sector in CEE and SEE countries through regional integration and cooperation, selective technical assistance programs and the practical application of lessons learned in neighboring countries. The substantive areas covered under the PFS Program are: accounting, auditing, banking, capital markets, insurance and pension reform. For more information, please visit the PFS Program website at http://www.pfsprogram.org/