Compliance

When assessing how effective your compliance program is, step into the regulators’ shoes. What are they looking for? Current and former high-level staff at the DOJ and SEC have keen insight into the issue. Does spending line up with compliance priorities? What do the roles of your legal and compliance departments say about your commitment to compliance?

When there’s no witness to wrongdoing, it can be so much easier to justify. And there are rarely witnesses when bribes are being made. The situation gets particularly sticky when compensation is a factor; the internal discussion turns from “do I need to report this” to “what would reporting this cost me?”

A few months into its fifth year, the Affordable Care Act remains true to its original set of goals and does not appear to be losing its momentum in its quest to reform health care. Author Craig Garner provides expert analysis of the order's impact on the industry -- and some forecasts for what's to come.

Whistleblowers can and should be integral forces within our compliance programs, but often they’re dismissed, branded traitors and blacklisted instead. Those who set out to blow the whistle often know they’ll be up against some serious opposition. But what about accidental whistleblowers? They’re just as subject to reprisal.

In order to be aligned with FIFA’s requirements to host a World Cup, several temporary legal acts have been issued by the government. This is where (lack of) compliance lies. Compliance is basically a non-issue for Brazil as the country prepares for the World Cup later this year. That’s to say there’s evidently not much concern for meeting requirements...

The “In Focus: Compliance Trends Survey 2014” report was a joint effort between Deloitte and Compliance Week. Executives were surveyed across functions including ethics, compliance, risk management, and governance and across multiple industries, and the results are clear: findings underscore the growing scope and complexity of the modern corporate compliance function. And while focus on compliance is growing, it's not...

As popular as the myth of the rogue employee is among companies answering for noncompliance, the reality is that the problem very rarely lies with a lone wolf. Companies make their compliance bed, then they lie in it. Blaming a corporate scandal on a single actor is ignoring the larger problem...

In China, FCPA violations are rampant, and maintaining compliance is no picnic. Despite its relatively moderate ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index, China is arguably among the worst offenders; between the government’s stronghold on the marketplace and the lack of financial controls, bribery of government officials has been commonplace. Until now. Recently, the country’s president began an assault on corruption,...

Whether or not a company is aware of its third parties’ goings on, it can suffer financial or reputational harm as a result of their actions. While culpability can be more difficult to prove, willful or feigned ignorance of likely red flags in highly corrupt areas won’t save the organization from the consequences of third parties’ unseemly conduct.

The changes Presidents bring to pass in their first 100 days in office have long been the measure of their success early on. Like our commanders in chief, our CCOs should aim to hit the ground running, quickly establishing themselves as champions of ethics and compliance. The first orders of business for new CCOs: use all resources available to you...

Until very recently, social media testimonials or endorsements from clients were strictly off limits to financial advisers. And since consumers mine social media for reviews on all manner of service providers, the financial services industry has been at a bit of a disadvantage, unable to benefit from clients’ shared positive experiences. The industry has earnestly sought guidance from the SEC...

Life sciences organizations face significant challenges with regard to risk management. One solution to minimizing risk may be better “big data” management, including forensic data analytics to mine mountains of data for indicators of fraud or corruption. Competitively speaking, there is immense power in big data...though that must be done with an eye on risk.