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 S$500,000
• S$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 Turn over of S$500,000 & Above)
Download

For Co-operatives (Annual Turn over 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.

Governance Guide on Internal Controls (2018) 

Governance Guides on Loan Management (2018)

Governance Guide on Investment Management (2018)

CO-OP SOCIETIES REGULATION

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

CO-OPERATIVES SOCIETIES ACT

For more information about the Societies Act, click here

REGISTRY OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES