The Likelihood of Fraudulent Financial Reporting: The New Implementation of Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG) 2017

Abstract

On 26 April 2017 Securities Commission Malaysia has released new Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG 2017) replacing MCCG 2012 with several changes and recommendations to enhance corporate’s accountability, transparency and sustainability. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare the degree of compliance of this new MCCG 2017 among healthy companies and likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting companies using PN17 companies as a proxy. This study used content analysis of MCCG 2017 and disclosures provided in the annual report of the companies and analyzed it using descriptive statistics. We find that the degree of compliance even among healthy companies in Malaysia in terms of board diversity and board remuneration is still insufficient, and some of the companies are still reluctant to comply. This study provides initial evidence on the effect of new amendment of MCCG 2017 on the likelihood of fraudulent financial reporting in Malaysia.