Financial Sector Dominates ‘Black List’ Transparency Ranking

In the Black: Corporate Responsibility Magazine announced its annual Black List, the Russell 1000 large-cap companies that tie for the bottom ranking in transparency and corporate citizenship.

The list features 58 dimly lit companies, representing American brands such as DreamWorks, NASDAQ and Madison Square Garden Inc. The rank is based on an audit of 100% publicly available data in seven categories.

The report showed that, while the 100 Best companies often feature 250 data points of transparency in publicly available places, The Black List com- panies reveal nothing—zero items—about their practices in environment, climate change, human rights, philanthropy, employee relations, financial performance and governance. Other findings:

• The financial industry was most represented on The Black List. Companies from that sector accounted for 32 of the list’s members, or more than half.
• Next most common was the energy sector at 12% of the total, followed by consumer items and health care, at 10% each.