Listed companies are being urged to adopt a new stock exchange governance code to broaden their reporting to inform and attract investors.
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The NZX's Corporate Governance Code - which has just come into force - is a set of guidelines based on eight principles that are seen as international best practice.
The code covers ethical, environmental, social, and diversity policies, what companies are wanting to achieve and how their performance has been.
NZX general counsel Hamish Macdonald said the code, which is not mandatory, was aimed at broadening the benchmarks for company performance beyond the usual and more narrow financial and commercial performance.
"What we're looking for is to promote stronger corporate governance, and driving transparency."
"The intention is to provide better information to the market, so the market can make informed decisions about how they feel about particular practices of a company and whether they want to invest in that."
Mr Macdonald said there had been a strong uptake and support for the code from companies and business groups.
The code is voluntary but companies not adopting it would need to tell shareholders and investors why not.
