TRACE International, Wolf Theiss, the US Embassy in Romania and EY Romania hosted the Corporate Compliance Conference on 24 March 2016 at the Marriott Hotel.

The event provided participants with an invaluable opportunity to learn the latest practices to effectively address challenges related to corporate compliance, including anti-bribery and anti-money laundering.

The officials and experienced professionals brought together by this conference discussed in detail on the legal framework specific to corporate compliance and also on the need to develop a prevention culture. There were 200 participants at this major corporate compliance event, representatives of companies active in banking, energy, pharma, telecom, financial and business consulting, real estate, etc.

“Workshops like this one help advance commercial transparency. They enable companies to benchmark their practices against widely accepted compliance standards. We are delighted to have the opportunity to speak with the business community in Bucharest about their specific compliance challenges and about some of the solutions we’re working on, including portable due diligence”, said Alexandra Wrage, president of TRACE.

Corporate Compliance is a hot topic nowadays in Romania. Private companies have an increasing interest in developing policies and procedures which are meant to protect them from potential situations of waste, fraud, and abuse, either intentional or unintentional.

„We are very pleased to be able to host this conference together with TRACE International, the US Embassy in Romania and EY Romania. We hope to impart some useful and interesting information to the participants and attendees at this one day conference. As Romania strives to become a leading country in this region, the enforcement of best practices in corporate compliance will become increasing critical in order for Romania to be perceived as a mature and sophisticated market for those companies seeking to do business here“, declared Wolf Theiss Bucharest representatives Bryan W. Jardine, Managing Partner and Ileana Glodeanu, Partner and Coordinator of the Corporate/M&A practice group.

“Why do companies need a corporate compliance program? The company should have methodology in place to efficiently convince its employees to do the right thing. If not to identify potential breaches of applicable laws and regulations by employees, managers, agents and its contracting third parties and to safeguard its position on the market as trustful and honest business partner. We all know that companies are looking for sustainable long term business conduct rather than short term unsecure gains. This mind set should be clearly communicated to the all stakeholders by the means of an influential compliance program. The compliance assessment is meant to design the methodologies and procedures needed for combating fraud, corruption, money laundering, financial crime and environmental misconduct.”, stated Mr. Burcin Atakan, EY Partner, on the pros of having an efficient compliance programs in place.

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About Trace International
TRACE International was founded in 2001 by in-house anti-bribery compliance experts to achieve economies of scale and set a common standard for two shared elements of anti-bribery compliance programs: due diligence reviews of commercial intermediaries and anti-bribery training for the global supply chain. TRACE International is a 501c(6) non-profit business association funded by its members; it leverages a shared-cost model to provide practical and cost-effective anti-bribery compliance services for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries through a membership program. TRACE International does not seek or accept any funding from any government. www.traceinternational.org.

About Wolf Theiss
Founded in 1957, Wolf Theiss is one of the leading European law firms in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe with a focus on international business law. With 300 lawyers in 13 offices located in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, Wolf Theiss represents local and international industrial, trade and service companies, as well as banks and insurance companies. Combining law and business, Wolf Theiss develops comprehensive and constructive solutions on the basis of legal, fiscal and business know-how. www.wolftheiss.com

About EY Romania
EY is one of the world's leading professional services firms with approximately cu 212.000 employees in 700 offices across 150 countries, and revenues of approximately $28,7 billion in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2014. Our network is the most integrated at global level and its vast resources allow us to help our clients benefit from every opportunity. In Romania, EY has been a leader on the professional services market since its set up in 1992. Our over 650 employees in Romania and Moldova provide seamless assurance, tax, transactions, and advisory services to clients ranging from multinationals to local companies. Our offices are based in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi and Chisinau. EY Romania is the most attractive employer in consultancy in the country, and the most sought after employer out of the Big4, according to studies conducted by Catalyst and Trendence 2015. For more information, please visit www.ey.com.