Study shows improvement in corporate transparency

The Basel headquarters of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Keystone

Four major Swiss companies provide enough information about their organisational structures, but not about anti-corruption programs and country-by-country reporting, according to a study by Transparency International (TI).

Released on Tuesday, “Transparency in Corporate Reporting: An assessment of the World’s Largest Companies” analysed publicly available information from the websites of the world’s 105 largest companies.

Overall, when the three areas examined by TI were combined, Swiss company Novartis ranked 12th, followed by Roche, 31, Nestlé, 34, and Credit Suisse, 44.

At the top of the list was the Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil, followed by mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and ArcelorMittal. The Bank of China ranked last.

The 105 largest publicly listed multinational companies are now more transparent than in 2008, when a similar study was conducted by TI. But there is still room for improvement, particularly in country-by-country reporting, the non-governmental watchdog organisation said.

Approximately half of the 105 companies do not publish information on their anti-corruption programmes.

“Ultimately, companies with a good track record of reporting on their anti-corruption programmes and global activities are more likely to be part of the solution than the problem,” the report said.