Since I’m not based in New York (preferring to dwell in one of our country’s Best Places to Live instead), I routinely miss out on the visits GRC vendors, usually towed by their PR counsel, pay to the magazine’s office.

Normally, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much, but earlier this week I was disappointed not to have heard what the folks from Audit Integrity had to say. My trusted contact at the office spoke highly of the firm’s “accounting and governance risk [AGR]” rating (“so simple, it’s genius,” my mole told me).

According to Audit Integrity, the AGR is “an assessment of the quality and transparency of corporate behavior … based on objective statistical assessments of high-risk behavior, measuring multiple financial and nonfinancial criteria.”

My Business Finance pal is not the only one who trusts the rating. Forbes publishes its annual list of most trustworthy companies based on the rating. Here’s this year’s list.

Also, here’s more information on the AGR rating, and here’s a taste of Audit Integrity chairman James Kaplan’s thinking. ###