Postgraduate Course in Compliance

Aspects of Business Ethics, compliance, and responsibility applied to the world of company management, and projected onto aspects that usually produce internally applicable standards. Relationship of business ethics with compliance with regulations and the establishment of voluntary standards above the legal thresholds of mandatory legal compliance.

Importance of good practices and international compliance standards as sources of obligations. Their interpretive and even binding nature. Soft Law sources.

• Traditional system of sources of law and obligations.
• Sources of Soft Law and practical efficacy.
• Taxonomy of technical standards (ISO, ISA, and ISAE).

Modern business management models framing compliance tasks within models integrated with Governance and Risk Management (GRC models). This section will deal with the interactions between these three spheres that the compliance officer regulates.

• Concept of Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC).
• GRC integrated management models: applications and solutions.
• Locations of the compliance function in the business organization chart.
• Interactions between compliance, internal control, and internal audit.

Due to the proliferation of liability rules that affect companies (mandatory or self-imposed), corporate compliance systems are needed that allow effective management of compliance. For these purposes, both international and national standards are being developed that determine the state of the art in this matter.

• Concept of CMS and compliance areas.
• Generic and specific standards.
• Organic compliance structures.
• Profile and functions of the Compliance Officer.
• Compliance Policy and CMS.
• ISO standard in CMS.
• ISO standard in ABMS.

Both international and national standards in matters of legal compliance use a series of principles and components that are developed in the environment of internal control of business management. This section deals with these generic reference frameworks and the compliance principles that have been developed through them.

• The COSO Framework: COSO I, COSO II and COSO III.
• The OCEG Capability model.
• OECD Guidelines.
• Profile and functions of the Compliance Officer.
• The Australian Standards AS 3806-2006.
• The technical audit standard IDW AssS 980.

Compliance frameworks specially adapted to technical matters or activity sector have been developed. Among these are those for the prevention and defence against corruption, which have become models of ethical management and a source of inspiration for a large number of regulations on the matter that compliance officers must be aware of.

• The "Corporate Guidelines" of the US Sentencing Commission.
• The OECD rules against corruption.
• The North American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
• The British Bribery Act.
• The compliance model of the Spanish Penal Code.
• Tax Governance, Tax Morality, and Tax Transparency.
• Money laundering prevention model.
• Compliance environments for competition matters.
• Consumer protection environments in the banking sector.
• Human rights compliance models.
• Fraud prevention management models.
• Privacy management models.

The practical application of compliance and corporate compliance models requires the following of techniques developed both as a result of generic and specific reference frameworks regarding compliance.

• Risk assessment: prioritization of risk behaviours.
• Policies, procedures, controls, and investigations.
• Map of compliance risk and criminal prevention.
• Organizational measures.

The practical application of compliance models in compliance involves implementing detection mechanisms and subsequently developing investigation processes that will combine respect for the law with the most advanced forensic techniques.

• Reporting channels and investigation protocols.
• Guarantees of privacy, defence, and non-retaliation.
• Procedural guarantees in the internal investigation.
• Forensic investigation techniques.
• Obtaining and processing digital evidence.

The behaviour of both individuals and groups of people must be taken into consideration both in the design and in the application of compliance models in a company. This section will address essential issues of social psychology that affect the field of compliance and that the compliance officer must take into account.

• Risk assessment: prioritization of risk behaviours.
• Policies, procedures, controls, and investigations.
• Map of compliance risk and criminal prevention.

The responsible behaviour of both individuals and groups of people must be taken into consideration both in the design and in the application of corporate compliance models. This section will address essential social psychology issues that affect the field of compliance.

• Framing techniques and influence on the propensity to comply.
• Communication techniques in adverse circumstances.
• Communication in the media.

Through this practical case in a company, an inappropriate commercial initiative will be managed from the point of view of legal compliance, through different moments:

• Moment 1: the compliance officer participates in a product launch committee where a very beneficial initiative is proposed from a business point of view, but which violates Competition Law.
• Moment 2: the compliance officer participates in a Board of Directors meeting where the previous initiative is evaluated.

A case of deliberate non-compliance in a business area and the complaint systems will be managed using this practical case in a company:

• Moment 1: an employee reports a serious case of corruption to the compliance department. The CO studies it. It affects the person in charge of the most relevant business unit of the organization.
• Moment 2: after an investigation period involving the purchasing department, the case of corruption is confirmed. The CO prepares a report for the Board of Directors.
• Moment 3: the CO reports the corruption case to the Board of Directors.

Through this case study, a situation will be managed where the person responsible for compliance in a specific area is not aligned with the compliance objectives declared by the organization and this leads to a criminal case:

• Moment 1: at a Compliance Committee meeting, the head of the tax area reports the execution of high-risk tax restructuring. The compliance policy and the values of the organization are expressly declared as being conservative. The CO expresses their opinion.
• Moment 2: the CO presents the monthly compliance report to the Board of Directors. They explain their views on the tax initiative.