SINGAPORE - Corporate governance requirements for firms in Singapore are the clearest and most comprehensive across the entire Asia-Pacific region, a study released on Wednesday has found.

The report, which did not assess how well firms complied with the requirements, looked at 25 markets globally.

Singapore was in overall third place, behind Britain which was No. 1 and the United States.

In general, developed markets such as Singapore had better-defined corporate governance requirements than developing markets, said the report, which was done jointly by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Acca) and consultancy KPMG.

Acca and KPMG noted in a statement that Singapore's corporate governance requirements have been recently "enhanced' via revisions to the code of corporate governance and Singapore Exchange listing rules.

However, Ms Leong Soo Yee, head of ACCA Singapore, said in the statement that some corporate governance rules could be tightened further.

These include rules related to documenting the role of the board, optimising board diversity and skill sets, disclosing codes of conduct, formalising board performance evaluations and disclosing more about stakeholder engagement, she said.

Mr Irving Low, head of risk consulting at KPMG in Singapore, added in the statement that "implementing corporate governance well" would help companies take better advantage of opportunities that will arise as South-east Asian economies continue to grow.