Corporate Compliance: Let’s Pause on the FCPA Pause...
The recent Executive Order on the FCPA has provoked a lot of reactions: disbelief, anger, cynicism, depression, and for some—hopefully a minority—even satisfaction.
If I were a psychologist, I would say that it is the perfect symbol of what some would like the world to be: a pre-1970s world…. the world of the sitcom, “Happy Days,” and the Cunningham family.
The problem is that in 2025, we are in a much more multipolar world and that, while nationalism is on the rise everywhere, the economy remains essentially global.
So, it may be time to deconstruct the situation and look at it with a broader perspective on what this means for the corporate compliance of global companies.
Lesson No. 1: Robust and sustainable compliance cannot rest solely on compliance with the laws.
In a highly volatile and increasingly confrontational world, corporations need to put in place integrity and compliance systems based on their own vision and values. Naturally, compliance with the laws is a must, but the system should protect against a race to the bottom.
Lesson No. 2: Consequently, the pillar of an integrity and compliance system should be an ethical one.
“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have the right to do and what is right to do.” - Potter Stewart (former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to1981)
Lesson No. 3: This regulatory chaos, which is not only US-driven (see what is going on in the EU over the Due Diligence Directive), is an incredible opportunity to reassess and review internal control and compliance systems.
It is an opportunity to get away from the piling on, silos approach based mainly on processes and tick-box exercises and to instead recast compliance as a key corporate value, one that would make the company attractive, sustainable, and less dependent on the contradictory evolutions of national and international regulatory frameworks.
International Lawyer, Former Director for Legal Affairs, OECD