Compliance

Which do you want to hear first? It seems the role of the CCO has gained steadily in influence, but there's progress to be made yet. CCOs must be viewed and treated as business partners in their organizations, which means they've got to make building relationships with other business partners a priority. Having strong relationships certainly helps to mitigate risks.

The most effective compliance programs provide an avenue for employees to report wrongdoings without fear of retribution. In order to promote a culture of compliance, your employees have to feel that they're heard and that issues of misconduct are treated seriously and handled swiftly. Is your company sending the message that staff are free to speak up?

Facilitation payments are handled differently depending on where you're doing business. Under U.S. law, they're allowable in only very limited circumstances, but they're never warranted under UK regulations. So how should companies operating in India who are also accountable to FCPA authorities move forward?

Endpoint security can be quite effective when used appropriately. That's to say when it's put to use as one component of a robust cybersecurity plan. When employed alone, this solution will fall woefully short of an organization's cyber needs, doing little to curtail business risks. Read on for all you should know about endpoint security -- and what more you...

Active participation in social media is a business imperative for any organization building its brand, but it's worth mentioning that companies must tread carefully, lest their promotions violate FTC guidelines or their policies and practices leave them exposed. Stories of businesses' social media missteps abound, but compliance and social media use don't have to be mutually exclusive terms.

Singapore's judicial system is broadcasting a pretty plain message: corruption -- whether in the private sector or in the public sector -- will not be tolerated. In a recent case involving bribery of a marine surveying consultant, the courts handed down an unusually strict sentence. This case can serve as a warning: the country's policy on corruption is zero-tolerance.

Corporate culture, defined by behavior, is notoriously difficult to measure. Determining, then, whether an organization boasts a "culture of compliance" or instead operates in a "culture of corruption" is tricky. There are a number of red flags, however, that often point to endemic corruption. Among them: tone at the top, incentive structure, and strategy.

It's incumbent on compliance practitioners at multinational corporations to pay close attention to developments in export regulations, as well as sanctions against nations and persons the government deems as risky, whether to our national security or to foreign policy. It's vital that our compliance programs remain nimble enough to adapt to changing risks on the global scale.

Government spending has been under close scrutiny and, as a result, budgets have shrunk and contractors' jobs have become increasingly difficult. When contracting organizations are forced to do more with less, compliance is one of the first areas to suffer. With the right approach, however, success is still within reach.

Thank goodness for automation, without which banks and financial institutions would spend a fortune trying to remain in compliance. Michael Volkov writes today about the various ways the financial service providers can use technology to improve the accuracy and efficiency of their compliance programs, improving monitoring and due diligence capabilities along the way.

The late, great mystery writer Ruth Rendell was known for challenging human bias. As a result, her writing felt fresh while her contemporaries' novels were often formulaic and predictable. In the world of compliance, overcoming human bias when seeking solutions is even more important. Tom Fox explores how compliance practitioners can perfect their decision making.

SEC enforcement actions have been on the rise for some time, a pattern that's only likely to continue given recent developments. The agency is more willing than ever to take cases to court, and last year saw the single largest whistleblower award to date. Bradley Bondi, SEC compliance and enforcement expert, outlines the agency's focus for 2015.