It is good to see the stock exchange working to improve the quality of disclosures by limiting the extent to which companies can use 'personal reasons' to explain the departure of directors.
The new guideline, implemented on Friday last week, restricts 'personal reasons' to refer only to 'illness, bereavement or other genuine personal difficulties that change the directors' circumstances'.
We hope this perspective will expand to the government and to public bodies, where clearer explanations are needed when key officials leave.
A quick look at history shows us that most listed companies or public officials use 'personal reasons' when it comes time to resign, saving themselves the trouble of telling investors the truth.
This is a problem, as the departure of a director may well be a signal that something has gone wrong within a company.
A typical example: Ocean Grand Holdings went into provisional liquidation in July last year after finding 800 million yuan of deposits had gone missing.