MSCI ESG评级分别从环境（E）、社会（S）、治理（G）三个维度（即MSCI评级体系下的三大支柱）对企业ESG表现进行评价，其中E/S包含8个主题，27个关键议题，对于不同行业的公司，MSCI会针对性分配两到七个关键议题；G包含2个主题（企业治理及企业行为），6个关键议题，适用于每家企业。

The MSCI ESG Ratings evaluate the ESG performance of companies based on three dimensions (i.e., the three Pillars of the MSCI ESG Ratings model): Environment (E), Social (S), and Governance (G). E/S covers eight themes and 27 key issues. For companies in different industries, MSCI will assign two to seven industry-specified key issues in E and S Pillars. G covers two themes (Corporate Governance and Corporate Behavior) and six key issues. These six key issues are universally applied to each company, regardless of their industry. 

在本系列中，我们将以MSCI ESG评级为基准，探讨企业该如何提升自身ESG工作水平及信披工作，并进一步提升企业ESG表现及相应评级。我们会针对不同的关键议题，探讨企业如何提升相应议题的表现，本篇将探讨企业行为主题项下的商业道德议题。

In this series, we will use the MSCI ESG Ratings model as a benchmark to explore how companies can improve their own ESG and relevant disclosure work, and further enhance their ESG performance and ratings. We will discuss how companies can improve their performance on different Key Issues. This article will explore the Business Ethics issue under the Corporate Behavior Theme. 

关键词：治理 企业行为 商业道德

Key words: Governance, Corporate Behavior, Business Ethics 

一、  评价体系

I.  Evaluation System 

商业道德作为MSCI体系内，治理支柱下企业行为的一项关键议题，是每一家企业都需要面对的课题。商业道德本身属于企业合规管理的一部分，重点关注企业在商业活动中的行为，诸如欺诈、高管不当行为、腐败、洗钱、反垄断违规等。

Business Ethics, as a Key Issue in the Governance Pillar of the MSCI ESG Ratings model, is universally applied to every company. The management of business ethics is part of a company’s compliance system, which focuses on the behavior of a company in regard to its business activities, such as fraud, executive misconduct, corrupt practices, money laundering, or antitrust violations, etc. 

MSCI从“政策及执行”以及“风险及争议”两个维度，为商业道德关键议题设置了9个关键指标，这些关键指标原则上适用于对每家企业的评价，但不同企业会因其所有权暨股权形式、管理架构等因素，略有不同。

MSCI sets nine universally applied Key Metrics for the Business Ethics Key Issue divided into two categories: “Policies & Practices” and “Risk & Controversies”, while some of the Key Metrics are relevant only to companies with specific governance characteristics stemming from ownership type, management structure or other factors. 

鉴于“风险及争议”并不涉及企业具体合规治理事项，因此我们将聚焦在“政策及执行”项下的7个关键指标。分别是：商业道德监督、反贿赂反腐败（以下简称“ABAC”）政策、供应商ABAC政策、举报人保护机制、员工道德标准培训、对商业道德标准的定期审核/审计、反洗钱政策。

Given that the two Key Metrics under the “Risk & Controversies” category does not involve a company’s specific management practices, we will focus on the seven Key Metrics under the “Policies & Practices” category. These seven Key Metrics are:

ž  Oversight of Ethics Issues

ž  Bribery and Anti-corruption (hereinafter referred to as “ABAC”) Policy

ž  ABAC Policy for Suppliers

ž  Whistleblower Protection

ž  Employee Training on Ethical Standards

ž  Regular Audits of Ethical Standards

ž  Anti-Money Laundering (hereinafter referred to as “AML”) Policy 

二、  提升建议

II.  Improvement Suggestions 

(一)  商业道德监督

(1)  Oversight of Ethics Issues 

评价对象：对企业负责监督商业道德和腐败问题的治理机构进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The governance body responsible for oversight of business ethics and ABAC issues is evaluated. 

评价重点：企业负责商业道德和腐败问题的监督治理机构是否具备足够高的层级。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the governance body responsible for oversight of business ethics and corruption issues has a sufficiently high level of authority. 

合规建议：企业应当建立由董事会负责推动、专门机构及专职高管（首席官员或董事长、副董事长级别）负责执行的体系，确保企业对商业道德的监督管理层级足够高，且贯穿企业各个层级并最终由董事会向股东及其他利益相关方负责。例如：董事会对企业商业道德和腐败问题负责；董事会专门委员会（对于中国上市公司来说，一般是可持续发展委员会或者战略委员会）负责监督指导相关工作；董事长、副董事长级别人员负责并领导相关执行工作；合规部门负责具体的商业道德和反腐败合规事宜；监事会或专门委员会负责对企业商业道德和反腐败合规工作进行督促、监督。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should establish a system that is driven by the board of directors, implemented by a special task force and dedicated senior executives (C-suite level officers or chairman, vice-chairman level executives) to ensure that the oversight and management of business ethics and corruption issues has a sufficiently high level of authority and permeates all levels of the company and that the board of directors is accountable to shareholders and other stakeholders. For example: The board of directors is responsible for business ethics and corruption issues in the company; a special board level committee (for Chinese listed companies, usually the sustainability committee or the strategy committee) is responsible for overseeing and guiding the related work; a C-suite level officer of chairman, vice-chairman level personnel to be responsible for and lead the related execution work; the compliance department is responsible for the specific business ethics and ABAC compliance matters; the board of supervisors or a specialized committee is responsible for urging and supervising the business ethics and corruption issues of the company. 

(二)  ABAC政策

(2)  ABAC Policy 

评价对象：对企业是否具备ABAC政策以及政策涵盖的范围进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The company’s ABAC policy and its scope are evaluated. 

评价重点：企业是否具备完善且具体的正式ABAC政策，且相关政策能够覆盖到企业所有部门。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the company has a comprehensive and specific formal ABAC policy, and whether the relevant policy could cover all departments and operations of the company. 

合规建议：企业应当建立完备且具体的合规政策，除常见的《合规行为准则》外，企业还应当就ABAC相关的具体问题如拜访、礼品、款待、招待、差旅、支付费用（如讲课费、劳务费、赞助、资助）等问题制定专项政策、手册或指引文件；若企业业务跨越多语种地区，应确保相应政策文件能够有效覆盖到企业全球范围内所有业务部门；企业应确保相应政策文件的易读性、可获取性。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should establish comprehensive and specific compliance policies. In addition to the common “Code of Conduct for Compliance”, the company should also formulate detailed policies, manuals or guidelines for specific ABAC-related issues such as visits, gifts, hospitality, entertainment, travel and accommodation, payment of fees (such as lecture fees, service fees, sponsorship, funding), etc. If the company operates across multiple language regions, it should ensure that the corresponding policies can effectively cover all business departments of the company globally. The company should ensure the readability and accessibility of the ABAC policy documents. 

(三)  供应商ABAC政策

(3)  ABAC Policy for Suppliers 

评价对象：对企业供应商ABAC政策覆盖范围及配套监管机制进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The scope of ABAC policy in place for suppliers and the relevant programs to verify supplier compliance are evaluated. 

评价重点：企业ABAC管理是否能有效覆盖所有供应商并要求其建立ABAC制度，以及企业是否建立良好的机制以评估、监督所有供应商有否做到ABAC合规。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the company’s ABAC management system can effectively cover all suppliers and require them to establish their own ABAC system, and whether the company has established good mechanisms to evaluate and monitor the ABAC compliance of all suppliers. 

合规建议：企业应当明确要求所有供应商拥有ABAC政策，相应要求应当有效体现在与供应商的合同中并有配套的违约责任以有效制约；企业应当建立完善的第三方尽调机制，在供应商准入筛查过程中，对ABAC事项做有效识别及管控；企业应当建立定期以及不定期督查、稽查制度，以确保供应商持续遵守ABAC合规要求；企业应当对供应商进行培训；企业应当建立有效的报告机制，以便相关方在发现供应商ABAC违规时能够便捷、安全地报告违规行为。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should explicitly require all suppliers to have their own ABAC policies, and such requirements should be effectively reflected in contracts with suppliers and have accompanying breach liabilities to effectively restrain them. The company should establish a sound third-party due diligence mechanism to effectively identify and control ABAC issues during the supplier admission screening process. The company should establish both regular and irregular inspection and audit systems to ensure that suppliers comply with ABAC compliance requirements continuously. The company should provide training for suppliers. The company should establish an effective reporting mechanism, so that relevant parties can conveniently and safely report an ABAC violation or potential violation risks of suppliers when they become aware of them. 

(四)  举报人保护机制

(4)  Whistleblower Protection 

评价对象：对企业是否能够为举报人提供有效的保护措施以使其免遭报复进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The policy and relevant mechanism to protect a whistleblower from retaliation are evaluated. 

评价重点：企业举报管理体系是否将举报人保护作为重点优先事项进行考量，是否为举报人提供了有效的匿名举报渠道。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the company’s whistleblower management system regards whistleblower protection as a prioritized consideration and provides effective anonymous reporting channels for whistleblowers. 

合规建议：企业应当建立专项合规举报管理政策；企业应当为员工提供有效的匿名举报渠道，让员工有权选择实名或匿名举报；企业应当建立完善的保密机制以有效保护举报事项及相关人员信息；企业应当平等对待实名及匿名举报；企业应当建立明确的举报人保护机制，以防止举报人被打击报复；企业应当对举报管理岗位员工进行培训，以使其具备举报人信息保密的意识及能力；企业应当对所有员工进行培训，以使其知晓恶意举报、打击报复的后果及惩处措施。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should establish a specific compliance reporting management policy. The company should provide employees with effective anonymous reporting channels, allowing them to choose between real-name or anonymous reporting. The company should establish a comprehensive confidentiality mechanism to effectively protect the information of the reported matters and related personnel. The company should treat real-name and anonymous reports equally. The company should establish a sound whistleblower protection mechanism to prevent whistleblower from being retaliated against. The company should train the staff in charge of reporting management to cultivate their awareness and ability to keep the whistleblower information confidential. The company should train all employees to make them fully aware of the consequences and disciplinary measures of malicious reporting and retaliation. 

(五)  员工道德标准培训

(5)  Employee Training on Ethical Standards 

评价对象：对企业能够在何种范围内对员工进行ABAC及商业道德培训进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The scope of employee training on ABAC and business ethics standards is evaluated. 

评价重点：企业对员工的培训能否有效覆盖所有人员。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the company’s training can effectively cover all personnel. 

合规建议：企业应当对所有员工（包括兼职员工、承包商以及实质性接触业务的实习生或全体实习生在内）进行ABAC及商业道德培训；企业应当定期更新培训内容，以确保培训符合最新的法律法规或行业最佳实践的要求；企业应当建立合适的考评机制来确保参与培训的人员有效理解培训内容，并对未能通过考评的员工进行额外培训。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should provide ABAC and business ethics training to all employees including part-time employees, contractors and interns who have substantial contact with the business or all interns, etc. The company should regularly update the training content to ensure such training comply with the requirements of the latest laws, regulations, or industrial best practices. The company should establish an appropriate assessment mechanism to ensure the trainees effectively understand the training content, and provide additional training to trainees who fail the assessment. 

(六)  对商业道德标准的定期审核/审计

(6)  Regular Audits of Ethical Standards 

评价对象：对企业ABAC及商业道德的审核/审计的频率以及覆盖范围进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The scope and frequency of the company’s ABAC and business ethics audits are evaluated. 

评价重点：企业是否能在合理的频率下，对企业所有业务进行有效的审核/审计。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the company can conduct effective audits of all its operations at a reasonable frequency. 

合规建议：企业每三年应当至少对所有业务进行一次与ABAC和商业道德相关的审核/审计，即审核/审计间隔不应大于三年；企业应当根据审核/审计结果，持续改进、优化公司的政策、程序及整体合规管理。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should conduct audits of all operations at least once every three years. The company should continuously improve and optimize its policies, procedures and overall compliance management based on the audit results. 

(七)  反洗钱政策

(7)  AML Policy 

评价对象：对企业反洗钱及客户身份识别（暨Know Your Customer，以下简称“KYC”）政策进行评价。

Evaluation Object: The company’s AML and Know Your Customer (hereinafter referred to as “KYC”) Policy is evaluated. 

评价重点：企业是否具有完善、有效的反洗钱及KYC政策并且能够通过相应政策的执行以确保其有效识别客户身份，从而避免洗钱行为的发生。

Evaluation Focus: Whether the company has a comprehensive and effective AML and KYC policy and can ensure the verification of its customers’ genuine identification through the implementation of the corresponding policy, thereby preventing the occurrence of money laundering activities. 

合规建议：企业应当制定详细的反洗钱及KYC政策，并为相关政策制定具体可落地的实施策略；企业应当对员工及相关方进行培训，以确保他们理解并遵守企业反洗钱及KYC政策；企业应当将反洗钱违规纳入其合规举报系统中，并为相关方提供举报渠道。

Compliance Suggestions: The company should formulate a detailed AML and KYC policy and develop specific and feasible implementation strategies for the relevant policy. The company should provide training to its employees and related parties to ensure that they understand and comply with the company’s AML and KYC policy. The company should include AML violations in its compliance reporting system and provide reporting channels for the related parties. 

注：KYC本身系反洗钱工作非常重要的一部分，我们认为其本应包含在企业反洗钱政策中。但考虑到MSCI在对企业反洗钱政策进行评价时，特地强调了KYC事项，不妨在反洗钱政策中相应突出KYC的重要性。同时，我们也理解AML及KYC的重要性更多体现在金融行业中。因此，不同行业公司应根据自身业务情况制定相应的AML政策。

Note: KYC is a key part of AML activity, and we believe that it should be implicitly included in the company’s AML policy. However, considering that MSCI specifically emphasizes KYC when evaluating the AML policy, it is advisable to highlight the importance of KYC in the AML policy accordingly. In the meantime, we also understand that the significance of AML and KYC is more evident in the financial sector. Therefore, companies in different industries should formulate appropriate AML policies according to their own business situations. 

我们相信如果企业能够参照本文内容进行商业道德及企业合规管理，并做好相应信披工作，充分反映企业治理情况，将会在有效提升企业合规管理水平的同时，对企业ESG表现的提升提供帮助。

We believe that if companies can refer to the content of this article for business ethics and compliance, and carry out corresponding information disclosure work which could fully reflect their governance situation, it will help to effectively improve their compliance management and ESG performance.