Adopting Compliance Policies and Procedures

 The first step toward establishing FCPA compliance is to adopt appropriate internal policies and procedures. These policies and procedures must be specific to the concerns raised by the FCPA, and they must be specific to the company’s unique management structure and operational risks as well. That said, FCPA compliance policies and procedures do not necessarily need to be stand-alone documents. If they can be integrated into the company’s existing compliance documentation, and if integrating them better facilitates corporate compliance, then there generally should not be an issue with simply updating the company’s existing internal documents.

However, this is not to suggest that establishing company-specific FCPA compliance policies and procedures is a simple or routine matter. Due to the nature of the conduct that the FCPA targets, it is especially important for FCPA compliance policies to take companies’ specific domestic and foreign business activities into consideration .While companies do not need to go overboard (and going overboard could actually suggest to federal regulators that the company is not adequately attuned to its specific FCPA compliance risks), they must also avoid overlooking potential issues that could lead to substantial liability exposure. Read more