|
The term "political corruption" in the financial world refers to those, whether in politics, governments or the corporate world, who choose to seek illegitimate personal gain from their role via a form of illegal activity. The illegal activity may take the form of bribery, extortion, embezzlement, theft or other abuse of power to gain unfair and illegal advantage. Anti Corruption refers to the efforts of banks and other financial institutions to combat this illegal activity and prevent the laundering of Proceeds of Crime at the earliest possible opportunity.
In the financial services industry reputation is paramount. Now, more than ever, legislation and good business practice requires that financial institutions deploy Anti Corruption methods and systems to protect their customers and your institution's good reputation. The management of financial institutions need to be absolutely sure that any prospective new client will bring you good, reliable income and that you can limit your risk exposure, especially with customers from new, emerging markets.
|
Each institution will want to be sure that they have not helped or are not now unwittingly helping a client to hide the proceeds of corruption and launder their ill-gotten gains through the financial system. The regulatory penalties for failing to pickup corrupt individuals / institutions are significant indeed.
|
|
In recent years corruption has been closely associated with Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). It is not against the law or regulation for you to have a PEP as a customer, but regulation and law in most countries require you to carry out extra due diligence when you take the customer on, to carry out regular updates of your customer data, and to apply greater scrutiny to the transactions.
In the fight against financial crime regulators have take an increasingly hard line approach against institutions that are not fully equipped to combat corruption. It is not sufficient to say that you have found no evidence of corruption in your organisation, and the emphasis has now turned to proving to the regulator what Anti-Corruption measures you have taken proactively as an institution.
www.world-check.com provide one of the most effective Anti corruption tools on the market today. These products ensure that financial managers are much better informed of the background of your client when you take them on and during the relationship. You need to be sure that you have clients on whom you can rely for a regular, solid and honest income and not to have criminals on your books. You need to be sure that you are meeting regulatory requirements and World-check.com can provide that comfort.
Institutions are always on the lookout for new clients and, with new business scarce in the current economic environment, the chance to win new business is even more precious. However, you also want to be absolutely sure that the new client will bring you good, reliable income and not problems and that you can limit your risk exposure, especially with customers from new, emerging markets. You want to be sure that you are not unwittingly helping your client to hide the proceeds of corruption and launder their ill-gotten gains through the financial system.
You need to be able to find out if your prospective client could be what the financial industry calls a Politically Exposed Person – a PEP – someone in a position of authority, with access to funds, who might be tempted to steal some of it. And you want to be sure that you can meet the requirements of regulators and lawmakers across the globe.
politicalcorruption.co.uk gives you access to the world’s leading database of individuals and entities who are a known heightened-risk of corruption, against which you can check your client's name, as well as details of family and associates, to see if they need the extra due diligence and monitoring which will protect your interests and satisfy the regulators that you are in control of your business.
|
|
|
