The financial and reputational repercussions of negative third-party exposure are burdens no company wants to bare but numerous international scandals have shown just how possible these scenarios are.
As complex as it may be to safeguard against third-party threats on a global scale, an effective vetting and monitoring strategy will go a long way toward protecting your business, says Rudi Kruger, GM of LexisNexis Data Services.
“Companies are subject to a growing number of regulations due to the globalisation of business, which means compliance in each location needs thorough understanding,” said Kruger. “Once the compliance requirements are established, true due diligence begins.”
Information collection
It’s vital to verify a corporate entity and find out more about its business operation and management structure. Gather information by issuing a comprehensive questionnaire that will draw information on company ownership, including beneficial ownership, governmental relationship, company background, including registration information. Add questions to test their knowledge on anti-corruption and what compliance measures they have in place.
Vetting
The information gathered from the questionnaire should be verified during the vetting phase. Once preliminary vetting has taken place, prospective third parties should be subjected to a watch list screening process. Prospective third parties should be checked against global sanctions lists, law enforcement lists of known criminal entities and regulator-published lists of disqualified companies.
Risk assessment
Once preliminary information has been collected and watch list screening has taken place, perform a risk assessment by sifting through internal company policy, conducting checks on negative news and investigating the company’s litigation history to identify any wrong-doings and red flags.
Risk management solutions
Online research tools are designed to enhance your due diligence efforts. One such tool is Lexis Diligence, a risk management solution from LexisNexis Data Services. Lexis(r) Diligence is a comprehensive database of more than 40 years of global archived news and data, designed to help a company perform the necessary due diligence in the areas of risk, compliance and fraud.
This makes it a valuable tool for meeting anti-bribery, corruption and anti-money laundering requirements, such as those set out in the UK Bribery Act 2010. Lexis Diligence also enables compliance officers to review data from the UK, EU, US and selected Asian jurisdictions.