Hot Topics in Compliance & Ethics in Europe Part II

As Eric returns from the Society for Corporate Compliance & Ethics European Ethics & Compliance Institute in Prague, he shares the hot topics of discussion at the conference.  He discusses his three main takeaways from the conference.   First, there is strong interest in corporate culture in Europe. Focus on ethical culture and compliance can vary between countries and cultures. In the past, many have held the belief that emphasis on compliance programs is not as strong in Europe as it is the US.  But that’s not a fair assumption. There is a strong recognition that healthy corporate culture is essential to an effective compliance program.   Second, Eric found that European compliance professional recognized strongly the impact of collecting data and using that data to inform the development of their compliance programs. He saw a very strong commitment to benchmarking programs and a strong focus on gathering data internally for measuring  performance of compliance programs.   Third, there was discussion and reaction to political changes in US and in Europe.  There was particular concern about President Trump’s statements during the campaign about rolling back regulations and how this may impact perception of the need for strong compliance programs.