Magna International, the Canadian Automotive supplier has achieved the honor spot in this year’s list of the most trustworthy companies in North America. The list is based on the Aggressive Accounting and Governance Risk (AGR) composite calculation, which assesses the risk factors in corporations.  It then assigns them a score based on areas such as regulatory actions, amended filings, revenue and expense recognition. Companies are scored out of 100 with a minimum of 70 required to get on the list.

A couple of nearby companies made the list with York Water Co. based in York, PA, achieving an AGR rating of 98 and Omega Flex Inc in Exton, PA, received 92. The idea is to highlight companies that consistently “demonstrate transparent accounting practices and solid corporate governance” and is produced by GMI ratings, which is now part of MSCI ESG Research. The list has been a valuable tool is corporate accountability since 2007, when it was first published.

In order to create the list, MSCI ERG screens more than 5,500 companies in North America to see if they qualify.  It then breaks the qualifying companies into three groups based on their market capitalization. The three groups are large cap ($5 billion or higher), medium cap (from $1-5 billion) and small cap ($250 million to $1 billion.)

While the list is a useful tool in evaluating a company’s progress to good corporate governance, it does not provide a guarantee that they will not fall off the wagon so to speak. The measures used to create the list are very stringent and even a small digression can bump a company from the top, to being excluded completely without any actual wrongdoing.  But by bringing attention to corporate transparency, MSCI ERG is improving awareness on this issue.

Read the full story and to see the Forbes list click here.