LRN Report Reveals 2 In 5 Codes of Conduct for the World’s Top Publicly Traded Companies Fall Short
25.7.2023 15:30:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
The 2023 Code of Conduct Report released today by LRN Corporation, the leader in ethics and compliance solutions that enable organizations to inspire principled performance, reveals that a significant proportion (two in five) of the world’s top publicly traded companies have work to do to meet basic expectations for more effective codes of conduct.
Further, "speak up" culture appears deficient in most organizations, as less than two-thirds of all codes include a section on reporting misconduct and fewer than three in five have strong non-retaliation policies stated for those who do so.
The report reviewed the codes of conduct of nearly 200 of the top publicly traded companies in Asia, Europe, and North America—focusing on those listed on the major indices in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and, for the first time, Japan and Singapore.
Among the other key findings of the report include:
- Only 43% of their codes of conduct for some the world’s largest publicly traded companies were scored "effective", meaning they meet the minimum expectations, and 40% were rated as less effective, meaning they fell below the expectations of an effective code. Only 17% were found to be more effective, meaning that their codes exceeded the minimum expectations
- The codes of companies on the U.S. S&P 100 outperform those in other indexes overall, while companies listed on Singapore’s STI 30 generally have the lowest code effectiveness scores
- 64% of codes analyzed have a section on speaking up, but only 57% of codes have a strong non-retaliation policy for employees who speak up about misconduct and just 17% explain the procedure for investigation of misconduct
- Companies with more effective codes are 10x more likely to include hotline/helpline details
- Only 48% of codes extend applicability to contractors, agents, and other third parties working on behalf of the company
About LRN
LRN's mission and purpose is to inspire principled performance and help people around the world do the right thing. Since 1994, LRN has worked to propel organizations forward with the partnership, knowledge, and tools to build ethical culture. Learn more at https://lrn.com and follow on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230725088236/en/
Contact information
Scott Addison
LRN@infiniteglobal.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Post-Quantum’s Algorithm - Classic McEliece - Achieves Global ISO Standardization to Protect the World From Quantum Cyber Attack15.7.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release
It’s proven that today’s encryption is vulnerable to attack by a sufficiently mature quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm - a catastrophic event commonly known as Q-Day. Even before such a cryptographically relevant quantum computer emerges it is known that adversaries are stealing encrypted data now, which can be decrypted later - also known as Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL). Google’s recent use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimise Shor’s algorithm reduces the number of physical qubits required to break today’s encryption, therefore shortening the timeline to Q-Day. This has led prominent experts to estimate today’s encryption may be broken as-soon-as the next three years. It’s against this backdrop that the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has included the Classic McEliece algorithm as part of its standard for Asymmetric Ciphers (ISO/IEC 18033-2). Organisations from ISO’s 177 member states can now upgrade to Classic McEliece using an international s
Thredd Joins The Visa Agentic Ready Programme, Bringing Agent Network Readiness To Issuers Across Europe, Starting With Zilch15.7.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
Thredd, the AI-first issuer processing platform, today announced it has joined the Visa Agentic Ready programme, enabling issuers across Europe to participate in agent-initiated payments without rebuilding their payments infrastructure. Consumer payments platform Zilch will be among the first issuers on the platform to enable agent-initiated payments for its cardholders. As a processor and enabler, Thredd sits at the trust layer of the payments ecosystem. By joining the programme, Thredd is ready to support Visa and its clients as the market moves into agentic commerce. Agentic commerce introduces a new type of payment initiator: An AI agent acting on a cardholder's behalf. The core payments principles do not change. Cardholder permission, issuer approval, authentication and fraud monitoring all still apply. What changes is how trust is established and enforced at the point an agent transacts. Taking a Zilch customer as an example, a cardholder might ask an AI agent to find a product w
Surgerii Robotics Announces First European Installation of the SHURUI ® Single-Port Surgical System at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital15.7.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
Surgerii Robotics today announced the first European installation of its SHURUI Single-Port (SP) Surgical System at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, one of Europe's leading academic medical centers. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260713209503/en/ The first pediatric procedure performed with the SHURUI SP system was a nephroureterectomy on a twelve-year-old boy whose kidney and ureter had become infected and non-functional due to multiple stones. The SHURUI SP system is CE-marked for adult and pediatric use, making it the only CE-marked single-port robotic surgical system currently indicated for pediatric procedures in Europe. The installation marks an important milestone in the international expansion of Surgerii Robotics and the introduction of the technology into a major European reference center. As part of this collaboration, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital has become the first hos
SES, Airbus and Dutch Municipality of Noordwijk to Build Satellite Optical Ground Station for EAGLE-115.7.2026 09:50:00 EEST | Press release
SES, a space solutions company, jointly with Airbus Netherlands B.V. signed a ground lease agreement with the Dutch municipality of Noordwijk for a plot at the NL Space Campus, next to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) technical center ESTeC. The facility will host a dedicated optical ground station (OGS) to communicate with the EAGLE-1 satellite and receive quantum safe keys via laser technology. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260714786947/en/ Breaking the ground of the EAGLE-1 Optical Ground Station, Municipality of Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Pictured left to right: Pim van Strien, Alderman for the Municipality of Noordwijk; Rob Postma, President and Managing Director, Airbus Netherlands; Alan Kuresevic, Managing Director, SES Techcom, SES. The station, to be built by Airbus for SES, will consist of a control room, alongside a dome housing an ultra-precise telescope to track satellites, required for the la
SINOVAC Announces Extension of Deadline to Submit Payment Instructions for Previously Declared Special Cash Dividend15.7.2026 09:00:00 EEST | Press release
Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SVA) (“SINOVAC” or the “Company”), a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China, today announced that it has extended the deadline for shareholders and nominee brokers to submit payment instructions relating to the Company’s previously declared special cash dividend. The Company previously announced a special cash dividend of US$55.00 per common share, payable to valid holders of the Company’s common shares as of the close of business on May 23, 2025 ET. The Company previously informed shareholders that completed instruction materials were to be submitted prior to December 31, 2025 in order to facilitate receipt of the dividend. The Company previously extended that submission deadline to June 30, 2026, and has now further extended that submission deadline to December 31, 2026. Shareholders and nominee brokers that have not yet submitted their instruction materials are reminded to do so on or before December 31, 2026 in order to facilitate paym
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom