Most companies have in place the foundational elements of an ethics and compliance program, but the more elusive elements that get to the heart of improving corporate culture provide key opportunities for improvement, according to the latest findings of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative’s High-Quality Program Assessment.
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Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Chocolate bars: Investigations into Ferrero are a lesson for compliance on EU antitrust commitments
Chocolate companies are in the sights of EU antitrust regulators. Ferrero, maker of Kinder, Ferrero Rocher, and Nutella, has revealed that it was the target of “dawn raids” by the European Commission in two EU member states.
Posted inCryptocurrency and Digital Assets
FCA joins police, HMRC to carry out first crackdown on illegal crypto trading
The U.K.’s financial services regulator has raided eight addresses in London as part of an operation working with police and tax authorities to disrupt illicit crypto activity and prevent possible financial crime risks.
Posted inArtificial Intelligence
U.K. joins global trend for AI-enabled regulatory supervision
The U.K. financial regulator is expanding its remit and planning to deploy AI to manage its increased workload. This is part of a global trend and has significant compliance implications.
Posted inRegulatory Policy
U.K. banking regulator focuses on accountability, governance and data while relaxing reporting cycles
The U.K. banking regulator is shifting its focus to rigorously monitoring outcomes, rather than adding rules, and this is driving investment in oversight functions.
Posted inRegulatory Policy
EU moves step closer to harmonizing anti-corruption laws
The European Union has moved a step closer in its plans to introduce new rules meant to harmonize how member states tackle corruption, as well as how EU institutions and agencies such as Europol, Eurojust, and the European Anti-Fraud Office work together to protect the bloc’s budget and combat corporate crime.
Posted inCompliance Week
Compliance Week and ECI name Maurice L. Crescenzi, Jr. President of Combined Business
Veteran chief ethics and compliance officer, big four consultant, and educator to lead the organization as risk and compliance leaders navigate an increasingly volatile and faster-changing era.
Posted inEurope
EU unveils customs overhaul to tackle e-commerce and geopolitical shifts
The EU Customs Union currently deals with trade worth €4.3 trillion a year. In 2024, 2,140 customs offices across the trading bloc collected almost €27 billion in customs duties and dealt with 1.37 billion items.
Posted inRegulatory Policy
Preparing for the EU’s anti-corruption directive
The EU Anti-Corruption Directive is set to come into force in a few months’ time and will take effect in mid-2028. It will harmonize bribery and corruption rules across the Single Market, as well as raise the prospect of better enforcement in those EU countries that have—so far—taken a decidedly lax approach to investigating and prosecuting serious corporate crime.
Posted inOpinion
Gartner director Stuart Strome on how compliance can shift from the ‘no’ department to an instigator of innovation
AI governance is crucial to organizational innovation, according to Stuart Strome, director at Gartner. Businesses that lead corporate governance initiatives around AI will be better placed to manage regulatory risks and facilitate technological advances without increasing friction.
