Corporate Governance and Guides

CODE OF GOVERNANCE FOR CO-OPERATIVES

The Code of Governance for Co-operatives (“Code”) was launched by the Singapore National Co-operative Federation on 11 Nov 2006 at the Annual Co-operative Leaders’ Conference. The Code encapsulates the best governance practices of the industry and aims to help co-op boards and management better fulfill their roles. The Code is meant to assist all co-ops (including non-affiliates of SNCF) to examine and raise their governance standards.

CODE COMPONENTS AND TIERS

The Code of Governance for co-operatives was formulated by a co-operative review team comprising representatives from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Ministry of Finance, the National Trades Union Congress and the SNCF. It consists of principles and guidelines for each of the following broad components:

Board Matters
Conflict of Interest Policy
Human Resource Policy
Accountability & Audit
Capital, Assets & Funds
Corporate Communications: Communications with members and stakeholders

The Code will be tiered according to credit and non-credit co-operatives. Credit Co-ops which are of greater regulatory risk (in view of their deposit-taking activities) will be subjected to more stringent requirements regardless of their annual turnover.

CODE OF GOVERNANCE

For Credit Co-operatives

Code of Governance (17 Oct 2016)

Non-credit co-operatives, on the other hand, will be subjected to the Code’s requirements based on their annual turnover as follows:

- Below $500,000
- $500,000 and Above

For Co-operatives (Annual Turnover of S$500,000 & Above)
Download

For Co-operatives (Annual Turnover of Less than S$500,000)

Download

SELF-EVALUATION CHECKLIST

For Credit Co-operatives

Download (Updated 17 Oct 2016)

For Co-operatives (Annual Turnover of S$500,000 & Above)

Download

For Co-operatives (Annual Turnover of Less than S$500,000)

Download

GOVERNANCE GUIDES

The Registry of Co-operative Societies and the Singapore National Co-operative Federation have jointly issued 3 Governance Guides for credit co-ops, on Internal Controls, Loan Management and Investment Management. The Governance Guides are designed to be references of good practices for the credit co-ops, with examples and templates for the credit co-ops to adopt when designing or revising their own standard operating procedures.

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES REGULATIONS

Co-ops are regulated by the Registry of Co-operative Societies (“the Registry”), under the Co-operative Societies Act.

Co-operative Societies Act
For more information about the Societies Act, click here.

Registry of co-operative societies
For more information about the Registry of Co-operative Societies, click here.
_{Source: Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth}