Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission consults on consolidated corporate governance training rules and tougher accreditation standards

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission has issued for public comment a draft memorandum circular setting consolidated, updated guidelines for mandatory corporate governance training for board members and key officers, alongside a revised accreditation framework for institutional training providers, resource speakers and in-house corporate governance training. The proposed guidelines would apply to publicly listed companies, public companies and registered issuers, as well as accredited institutional training providers. For first-time directors and key officers, the draft expands mandatory training content to cover the revised Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Principles of Corporate Governance, the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard, the Code on Corporate Governance, the Integrated Annual Corporate Governance Report, and environmental, social and governance and sustainability reporting, alongside topics such as minority shareholder protection, financial oversight and audit, compliance and ethics, insider trading and short-swing transactions, conflicts of interest, related party transactions, director liabilities, confidentiality obligations and competition law. Training may be delivered onsite, online or in hybrid form, organised either by the company or an institutional training provider, with proposed processing fees for accreditations ranging from PHP 2,000 to PHP 50,000 and a proposed extension of institutional training provider accreditation validity from three years to five years; violations could attract fines of PHP 1,000 to PHP 50,000 and potential suspension or revocation of accreditation after due notice and hearing. Comments on the proposed rules are due by 28 February.