Canadian securities regulators say that issuers have to improve disclosure of their governance arrangements, after their latest review found compliance getting worse.

The Canadian Securities Administrators published a staff notice Thursday setting out results of the its review, and providing further guidance to firms on complying with the requirements.

The CSA reports that it reviewed 72 issuers, and just over half of them (55%) were required to enhance their corporate governance disclosure in the future. This represents a decline in compliance, as a similar review in 2007 found that only 36% needed to make improvements.

Compliance deteriorated at both senior and junior issuers. The CSA reports that 42% of senior issuers reviewed in 2007 were required to make enhancements. That rose to 63% in the latest review. Among junior issuers, the proportion required to improve disclosure rose from 26% last time to 42% in the 2010 survey.

The one improvement from the previous survey was that no company was actually required to restate their disclosure this time around. Back in 2007, two junior issuers hadn’t made any disclosure and were required to make financial restatements as a result (no senior issuers did).

In the notice, regulators call the level of non-compliance with the disclosure requirements “unacceptable”, and say that issuers need to improve.

“We will continue to review corporate governance disclosure as part of our overall [continuous disclosure] review program,” the notice says. “Issuers should anticipate staff requests for additional disclosure, re-filings or other staff action, where appropriate, if an issuer has not fully met its corporate governance disclosure obligations.”

Areas where firms need to beef up their disclosure relate to boards of directors, position descriptions, orientation and continuing education, ethical business conduct, nomination of directors, and assessments.

“Given the results of the review, the notice is intended to be an educational tool for reporting issuers to assist them in improving their corporate governance disclosure,” Jean St-Gelais, chair of the CSA and president and CEO of the Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers, said in a release.

“Disclosure of corporate governance practices is important for investors, who require access to regular, reliable and comparable information in sufficient detail in order to make informed investment decisions.”

IE