The increase in China's listed corporate governance index in 2026 will expand compared with the previous year

China News Service, Tianjin, November 14 (Reporter Zhou Yaqiang) The 2026 China Listed Corporate Governance Index was released in Tianjin on the 14th, and the China Listed Company Green Governance (ESG) Index was released at the same time. The results show that the average governance index is 65.22, an increase of 0.28 from 64.94 in 2025, and the increase is larger than the previous year; the average ESG index is 60.33, an increase of 1.23 from 59.1 in 2025.

On the same day, the 2026 China Listed Corporate Governance Index Release and Academic Seminar was held at Nankai University under the guidance of the China Association of Public Companies and sponsored by the China Corporate Governance Research Institute of Nankai University and the Green Governance and Governance Modernization Research Center of the Chinese Modernization Development Research Institute. Li Wei'an, chair professor at Nankai University and director of the China Corporate Governance Research Institute, released the above index on behalf of the research team.

The increase in the governance index of listed companies expanded, reflecting the accelerated improvement in the governance level of listed companies and the continued optimization of the governance hierarchy. Among the six dimensions of the governance index, except for the shareholder governance dimension which dropped by 0.18, the other five dimensions all increased. The supervision and governance index was 60.72, an increase of 1.6 from the previous year, the largest increase; the stakeholder governance index was 70.21, an increase of 0.51, the second largest increase. This evaluation uses the "supervision and governance" dimension to replace the original "supervisory board governance" dimension. The number of evaluation samples was 5,461, an increase of 93 compared with the previous year.

Looking at different industries, the average corporate governance index of the financial industry is the highest at 67.4; the shareholder governance index and stakeholder governance index of listed financial institutions both hit a new high in the past six years. In terms of the nature of controlling shareholders, the governance index of privately held listed companies is 65.55, which is 1.38 higher than that of state-controlled listed companies, extending their lead.

The effective evaluation samples of the ESG index are 2,714 companies. The ESG index of state-controlled listed companies is 60.88, which continues to be higher than that of privately held listed companies; the Science and Technology Innovation Board ranks first among all sectors with 61.6.

The China Listed Corporate Governance Index has been released for 24 consecutive years since 2003, with a total of 68,185 evaluation samples. The ESG Index has been released for 9 consecutive years since 2018, with a total of 14,093 evaluation samples.