The U.S. Corporate Enforcement Policy, which incentivises companies to self-disclose bribery and corruption when they come across it, now applies to U.S. companies which are merging with or acquiring foreign companies. That’s according to a recent speech by a senior official at the Department of... Read More

Five trillion plastic bags. That’s the number of single-use (double, if you have a dog) bags used worldwide every year. To put that into perspective, the bags spread out side-by-side would cover an area twice the size of France says a U.N. report released on World Environment Day in June. And you... Read More

The global compliance landscape is becoming ever more complex, and some of the most significant recent developments in ABC and AML legislation have happened in the UK. All companies who operate in the UK need to be aware of these laws, as well as growing consumer expectations of ethical behavior, if... Read More

No industry is impervious to bribery and corruption risk, but companies linked to energy industries, in particular, face elevated risks in order to reap the equally-high rewards. It’s a topic we’ve touched on in blog posts on Unaoil and Petrobras . But anti-bribery and corruption regulations... Read More

Danske Bank and Siemens have appointed chief compliance officers to their boards of directors this summer. We explore why compliance has become accepted as a critical function in any company. At the next board meeting of Denmark’s biggest bank, a chief compliance officer will be at... Read More

Just three years ago, Teva Pharmaceuticals, a drug-maker in Israel, disclosed to both the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice that an on-going internal probe had revealed possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and/or local laws. Ultimately... Read More

The makers of Jim Beam whisky have paid $8 million to settle allegations of bribing government officials to enter the Indian market. The settlement is a timely reminder of the continued threat of FCPA enforcement action , and the particular risks posed by third parties in the food and drink industry... Read More

Two-hundred and seven million eggs were recalled on April 13th of this year—the largest such recall in the U.S. in nearly 10 years. By May, another 12 people from 9 states had fallen ill from the tainted eggs, bringing the total to 35 with 11 individuals requiring hospitalization. Major supermarket... Read More

Kathryn Higgs is Director of Transparency International’s Business Integrity Program. Prior to that she was head of ethics and compliance at Tesco and chief compliance officer at Balfour Beatty. In an exclusive interview with LexisNexis, she says that technology has increased the risk of bribery... Read More

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence whereby computers use algorithms to analyse data to identify patterns and build predictive models. With a minimum of human intervention, the models are automatically adapted to produce increasingly reliable and insightful results as they are exposed... Read More

Since its introduction of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977, the United States has led the world in efforts to counter bribery and corruption in corporate business that traverses national borders. Now it has gone a full step further with permanent adoption and expansion of its Corporate... Read More

College basketball in the United States is watched by millions and has become lucrative for the universities who compete and the companies who sponsor the teams. But college sport can also carry reputational, legal, and financial risks. We have seen the latest reminder in New York this week, when prosecutors... Read More

Nothing evokes the public and personal perils of high-level corruption more powerfully than photos of the billionaire chairman of a corporate conglomerate being led to a prison bus in handcuffs. Or almost nothing. Images of his 95-year-old wheelchair-bound father, the founder of the conglomerate, leaving... Read More

For the latest installment of our Q&A series, we spoke with Simon Baptist of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). More than 100 economists and experts at the EIU analyze political and economic risks for some of the world’s biggest companies. As Global Chief Economist and Managing Director... Read More

Universities in the United States received a record $43.6 billion in donations from individuals, companies and organisations in 2017. But recent scandals show that universities must not neglect due diligence on the source of these donations. Top marks for university fundraisers 2017 was... Read More

The world’s most corrupt countries have been revealed in Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index. The big movers in this year’s index are the UK, whose score has improved by eight points since 2012, and Australia, whose score has fallen by eight. Usual... Read More

The relationship between social injustice—and those who turn a blind eye to it—has been recognized by great minds across the ages. “Your silence is consent,” said Plato 24 centuries ago. “He who does not oppose evil, commands it to be done,” said Leonardo Da Vinci... Read More

Last year, 11 companies paid just over $1.92 billion to resolve US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions. We take a closer look at the biggest fines and draw out six lessons on how companies should respond to bribery and corruption risks. Fines are getting bigger The total number... Read More

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention was signed on 17 December 1997. It required its member countries to create legislation to make bribing a foreign public official illegal. In this blog, the Head of the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Division... Read More

In today’s climate terms like ‘due diligence’, ‘being risk averse’ and ‘risk assessment’ might seem like jargon and barriers to productivity, but in reality, addressing third-party risk through onboarding due diligence and risk assessments helps ensure successful... Read More

As the year draws to a close, supermarket shelves are once again groaning with the weight of chocolates that will be sold and gifted in vast quantities globally. With December 9 being Anti-Corruption Day , however, now is the perfect time to ask, “Are the goodies we add to our shopping carts hiding... Read More

Our series on PESTLE risk monitoring continues with an exploration of the “S”—Socio-cultural—and how it influences supply-chain and third-party risk to global organizations. As organizations become more reliant on complex networks of suppliers and other third parties, the risks... Read More

In the second blog in our series on PESTLE risk monitoring, we look at the “E”—Economic—and the role economic factors play in terms of the supply-chain and third-party risks organizations face. Economics is at the core of every business. Defined as the production, consumption... Read More

Modern slavery risks have risen across the world over the last year, including in 20 of the 28 member states of the European Union, according to the Modern Slavery Index 2017 , an annual study by Verisk Maplecroft, we look at the increased risks and numbers of victims of forced labor in supply chains... Read More

In the first blog in our series on PESTLE risk monitoring, we look at the “P”—Political—and the role political factors play in terms of the supply-chain and third-party risks organizations face. If 2016 taught us nothing else, it certainly demonstrated that the global political... Read More