Maybank stood among the leaders in the region with women making up 36% of its board, well above the average of 17.8% across 50 Asia Pacific banks surveyed.

The percentage of women appointed as independent directors on the boards of Malaysian banks and insurance companies was second only to Australia.

Sharman Arumugam, president of CPA Australia’s Malaysia divisional council, said financial institutions here had been moving in the right direction in the areas of corporate governance and risk management practices.

However, he noted that there was still room for improvement when it came to remuneration disclosure and the implementation of responsible lending and investment principles.

The study found that most financial institutions in the region were not prepared for crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, calling for a review of their risk management regimes.

“Malaysian financial institutions, however, are required by Bank Negara Malaysia to carry out a multi-year solvency stress test exercise against risk events, which include pandemics.

“While not specifically identified as a key risk, a crisis scenario plan for a pandemic is publicly identified by Allianz Malaysia as relevant to their operating environment in Malaysia,” CPA Australia said in its statement.

The study, jointly conducted with Mak Yuen Teen from the National University of Singapore, surveyed 50 listed banks and 50 insurance companies across the Asia Pacific region.

Four Malaysian insurance companies and three Malaysian banks were part of the survey together with reputable institutions from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan.

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