Confidence in Compliance

A Research Study in Collaboration with Corporate Board Member

How do U.S. public company directors feel about their internal ethics and anti-corruption compliance programs? Are those programs doing everything possible to maintain operational oversight by the governing board? All companies, public and private, regardless of what specific laws might apply to it, should be concerned about the risk of wasting corporate assets through improper or illegal activity. Corporate misconduct can cause lasting reputational damage to any company, of any size.

According to FTI Consulting’s co-sponsored Law in the Boardroom study published in Corporate Board Member magazine, several areas of weakness recently have eroded director confidence in the effectiveness of internal ethics and compliance programs. As regulations become increasingly complex and the pace of business transformation continues to accelerate, companies need to take steps to maintain board director confidence in their compliance leaders and programs. There are four areas that companies should review for changes that might improve confidence:

Ensuring the compliance leader has direct and autonomous access to the board of directors
Setting formal metrics for the board to measure the effectiveness of the compliance program
Creating effective whistleblower programs and reporting on them regularly to the board
Enhancing compliance functions by using advanced technology to monitor data efficiently

This is an extract from Corporate Board Member, first published in 2019. The whole publication is available at https://go.boardmember.com/cbm-fti-compliance-research-2019

"Today’s organizations face increasingly complex regulations and legislation, targeting an array of new risks that must be addressed by corporate compliance and oversight. By putting the spotlight on areas of inadequacy in corporate ethics and compliance programs, a new study conducted by Corporate Board Member in partnership with FTI Consulting sounds a warning to governing directors and legal advisors that today’s rapidly shifting environment may pose a challenge to their established oversight function."

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc., its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Reprint permission provided by Corporate Board Member.