Welcome to the award-winning FCPA Compliance Report, the longest-running compliance podcast. In this episode, Tom welcomes back Brent Carlson and Mike Huneke to discuss a crucial topic in corporate compliance: the return on investment (ROI) in export controls compliance.
This pod reviews the challenges compliance professionals face in articulating the value proposition for investments in compliance programs. Brent and Mike highlight the misconceptions about compliance being merely a cost center and explore various ways to demonstrate its tangible benefits to executive teams and boards. The discussion also covers the impact of recent regulatory changes and geopolitical tensions and how companies can proactively address these shifts to ensure robust compliance and leverage new opportunities. By looking at past enforcement actions and drawing parallels with the evolution of the FCPA, the episode provides listeners with critical insights into the practical steps for enhancing compliance programs and the importance of staying ahead of regulatory expectations in a rapidly changing global trade environment.
Welcome to the Daily Compliance News. Each day, Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you compliance-related stories to start your day. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen in to the Daily Compliance News—all from the Compliance Podcast Network. Each day, we consider four stories from the business world: compliance, ethics, risk management, leadership, or general interest for the compliance professional.
Welcome to a special podcast series on the Compliance Podcast Network, 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. Over these 31 days of the series in January 2025, Tom Fox will post a key part of a best practices compliance program daily. By the end of January, you will have enough information to create, design, or enhance a compliance program. Each podcast will be short, at 6-8 minutes, and will include three key takeaways you can implement at little or no cost to help update your compliance program. I hope you will join us each day in January for this exploration of best practices in compliance.
In this episode, we review the importance of having well-crafted compliance policies and procedures as the foundation of a robust compliance program. As highlighted by the 2024 ECCP and 2020 FCPA Resource Guide, such policies and procedures are crucial for addressing and mitigating risks identified during a company’s risk assessment. Regulators emphasize having articulated anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies regularly reviewed and updated to reflect evolving risks. We discuss the five general elements of a compliance policy and underscore the need for consistent implementation to maintain the credibility and effectiveness of the compliance program. Key takeaways include the necessity of written policies, expectations from the DOJ and SEC, and the critical role of institutional fairness.
Key highlights:
Importance of Compliance Policies
Key Elements of Compliance Policies
Assessment and Evolution of Policies
Resources:
Listeners to this podcast can receive a 20% discount on The Compliance Handbook, 5th edition, by clicking here.
Welcome to a special podcast series on the Compliance Podcast Network, 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. Over these 31 days of the series in January 2025, Tom Fox will post a key part of a best practices compliance program daily. By the end of January, you will have enough information to create, design, or enhance a compliance program. Each podcast will be short, at 6-8 minutes, and will include three key takeaways you can implement at little or no cost to help update your compliance program. I hope you will join us each day in January for this exploration of best practices in compliance.
This episode explores the critical value and construction of a corporate Code of Conduct, explaining its evolution from a legalistic document to a cornerstone of compliance programs. The discussion includes an analysis of the 2016 SEC Enforcement Action against United Airlines, highlighting how violations of the Code of Conduct can lead to severe consequences, including substantial penalties and executive resignations. Key takeaways emphasize that a Code of Conduct should be tailored to a company’s specific culture and industry, must be accessible to all employees, and needs to be regularly updated and documented to ensure its effectiveness. Tune in to learn why a robust Code of Conduct is foundational for any compliance program.
Key highlights:
Introduction to Code of Conduct
Regulatory Expectations and Guidelines
Crafting an Effective Code of Conduct
Resources:
Listeners to this podcast can receive a 20% discount on The Compliance Handbook, 5th edition, by clicking here.
In the Sunday Book Review, Tom Fox considers books that interest the compliance professional, the business executive, or anyone curious. It could be books about business, compliance, history, leadership, current events, or anything else that might interest Tom. This month of January, we will review the top books on some key areas of interest for compliance professionals. This week, four upcoming books in 2025 for business leaders.
How to Dao by Kevin Owocki and Puncar
The Power of Purpose, 4th edition by Richard Leider and David Shapiro
The Resilient Leader by Brian Molitor
House of Huawei by Eva Dou
For more information on the Ethico Toolkit for Middle Managers, available at no charge, click here.
Welcome to the Kerrville Weekly News Roundup. Each week, veteran podcaster Tom Fox and his colleagues Andrew Gay and Gilbert Paiz get together to go over a couple of their favorite stories from the past week from Kerrville and the greater Hill Country. Sit back, enjoy a cup of morning coffee, and listen in to get a wrap-up of the Kerrville Weekly News. We each consider two of our favorite stories and talk about the upcoming weekend’s events, which we will enjoy or participate in this weekend.
In this episode, Tom, Gilbert, and Andrew return for their first episode of the new year and examine some of the things that caught their attention over the past week.
Welcome to a special podcast series on the Compliance Podcast Network, 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. Over these 31 days of the series in January 2025, Tom Fox will post a key part of the best practices compliance program daily. By the end of January, you will have enough information to create, design, or enhance a compliance program. Each podcast will be short, at 6-8 minutes, and will include three key takeaways you can implement at little or no cost to help update your compliance program. I hope you will join us each day in January for this exploration of best practices in compliance.
In this episode, Tom Fox discusses the importance of embedding a culture of compliance throughout all levels of an organization. Mike Volkov emphasizes that having senior management committed to compliance is not enough; the culture must permeate middle and lower management for a program to be effective. The 2024 ECCP underscores the necessity for ethical values to be embedded throughout the company’s hierarchy. This involves senior and middle management actively demonstrating their commitment to compliance, even in the face of competing business interests. Middle management plays a critical role, as they are the primary interface between most employees and upper management. The script highlights practical steps such as assembling compliance focus groups, training managers in effective listening, and ensuring organizational justice to operationalize a compliance program effectively. We also consider how to assess the real-world application of compliance measures within the company and the need for consistent and fair disciplinary actions across different regions and business units to reinforce a culture of compliance.
Key highlights:
Embedding Compliance Culture
Role of Middle Management
Tone at the Bottom
Resources:
Listeners to this podcast can receive a 20% discount on The Compliance Handbook, 5th edition, by clicking here.
Welcome to 10 For 10, the podcast that brings you the week’s Top 10 compliance stories in one podcast each week. Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, brings you the compliance professional and the compliance stories you need to know to end your busy week. Sit back, and in 10 minutes, hear the stories every compliance professional should know from the prior week. Every Saturday, 10 For 10 highlights the most important news, insights, and analysis for the compliance professional, all curated by the Voice of Compliance, Tom Fox. Get your weekly filling of compliance stories with 10 for 10, a podcast produced by the Compliance Podcast Network.
In the first part of our inaugural broadcast of 2025, we’ll speak with lawyer and analyst Ross Feingold on the extraterritorial enforcement of US laws and regulations in the Asia-Pacific region as President Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20. We’ll follow up on that with a chat with Hong Kong-based lawyer Ben Hammond about the city’s forthcoming Stablecoin law.
Ross Feingold is Head of Research at Caerus Consulting, a consultancy that advises clients on worldwide risk management. Admitted to practice law in New York and Washington, DC, he was previously an in-house counsel at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, and J.P. Morgan. Ross has lived in Asia for over twenty years—including in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei—and speaks fluent Mandarin.
He is also a lecturer and political analyst, a director of the Paris-based Association of American Residents Overseas, and, during his Hong Kong days, the Asia chairman of Republicans Abroad.
In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Ross speaks with host Ajay Shamdasani about the extraterritorial enforcement of US laws and regulations under the Trump administration, including sanctions and trade tariffs, with an eye toward the Asia-Pacific region.
With Donald Trump set to return to power shortly, many in this region are jittery about how he’ll handle his second time in the Oval Office. It’s an open question whether or not the Trump administration will increase legal and compliance costs for firms in Asia.
In the run-up to last November’s election, the president-elect threatened 60% tariffs on Chinese goods. He has since followed up by saying he would issue the first of “many” executive orders, including a 10% tariff on Chinese exports.
Worse still, President Trump threatened the BRICS nations should they move to undermine or dump the US dollar for trade purposes.
Ross shares his views on what the region’s banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations should expect from the new administration on the overseas enforcement front, including sanctions related to Iran and Russia and the ongoing chip and technology war between the US and China.
Reflecting on his experience as an in-house lawyer at some of the world’s most renowned banks, he also offers some suggestions for what general counsel and compliance officers in the region’s financial sector, especially, should be cognizant of when preparing for what the next iteration of the Trump administration might dish out.
A big part of that is Trump’s threat to take action against the BRICS nations should they undermine the role of the US dollar in international trade. While the greenback isn’t going away anytime soon, it’s unclear to what degree Trump will carry forward with his admonition.
Ben Hammond is the managing partner of the law firm Ashurst in Hong Kong. In this episode, he articulates his views on the city’s new Stablecoin Bill, which was gazetted on December 6, 2024, and had its first reading before the territory’s Legislative Council on December 18.
Hongkongers are getting closer to experiencing the many applications of stablecoins, from domestic payments to cross-border trade settlements as a bill covering the digital currency winds its way through the Legislative Council.
The Hong Kong government’s proposed Stablecoins Bill is approaching becoming law as the city seeks to balance financial stability and consumer protection while advancing its virtual assets agenda.
Stablecoins are digital assets issued by private entities that maintain a fixed value relative to a government-issued fiat currency or other reference rate. Generally, they have served as a bridge for transactions involving digital assets on blockchains, which cannot directly interact with fiat currencies.
Potential uses of stablecoins could include automating incentives, rebates, or loyalty points in digital wallets, like the Octopus program, by using their programmability or the ability to input rules and data in the blockchain.
Additionally, stablecoins can provide access to new investment avenues like tokenized funds, which use the blockchain for sales and redemptions, where assets under management are expected to climb to about US$600 billion in seven years from US$2 billion at the end of this year, according to a report from Aptos Labs, Boston Consulting Group, and Invesco.
Ben is also a partner in Ashurst’s financial services regulatory group, where he leads its non-contentious regulatory practice in the territory. He advises clients on a broad range of transactional and non-transactional regulatory areas.
With his extensive expertise in digital economy matters, Ben has advised clients across various regulatory areas. Most notably, in February 2023, he advised Goldman Sachs on using its tokenization platform, GS DAP™, to issue an HK$800 million tokenized green bond for the Hong Kong government—it was the first tokenized green bond issued by a government globally.
In February 2024, Ben led a team supporting HSBC as the platform provider to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority—the city’s banking regulator and de facto central bank—on the world’s first multi-currency “digitally native” bond offering.
Ben discusses his professional background and how he first became involved with digital assets. He delineates what to expect from the Special Administrative Region’s new stablecoin bill, why it is important, how it will move the industry forward, and why it took so long.
He also shares what the bill will mean from a regulatory perspective for legal, compliance, and risk staff at institutions dealing in such instruments and what value he believes lawyers add in such technology-oriented matters when most of them are not technically trained.
Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.
Where does creativity fit into compliance? In more places than you think. Problem-solving, accountability, communication, and connection—they all take creativity. Join Tom Fox and Ronnie Feldman on Creativity and Compliance, part of the award-winning Compliance Podcast Network.
Ronnie’s company, Learnings and Entertainment, utilizes the entertainment devices people use to consume information in their everyday, non-work lives and applies it to important topics around compliance and ethics. It is not only about being funny. It is about changing the tone of your compliance communications and messaging to make your compliance program, policies, and resources more accessible. In this episode of Creativity and Compliance, host Tom Fox and Ronnie Feldman review their top 10 lessons learned from creative compliance initiatives for 2025.
They discuss the importance of keeping communication short and simple, the value of frequent reminders over extensive training, and making compliance resources easily accessible. They also cover leveraging positivity and a mix of rewards and penalties to engage employees. They highlight the significance of psychological safety, the role of influencers in promoting compliance, and the necessity for variety in communication methods. Lastly, they emphasize the power of fun in making compliance messages memorable and effective. Join them for an insightful and entertaining recap aimed at making compliance both engaging and effective in the year to come.
Compliance Confessions – inspired by “Mean Tweets” these 90-second commercials address misconceptions and excuses to promote speak up culture and the E&C team as positive and helpful.
E&C Training Jams – a soulful singer banters with ethics & compliance explaining policies, sharing examples and debunking excuses.
Tales from the Hotline– Real speak up-themed stories about workplace behavior gone wrong.
Workplace Tonight Show!– E&C meets SNL Weekend Update explaining corporate risk topics and why employees should care.
60-Second Communication & Awareness Shorts– A variety of short, customizable, music and multimedia, quick-hitter “commercials” promoting integrity, compliance, speaking up and the E&C team as helpful advisors and coaches.
Custom Live & Digital Programing– Custom creative programming that balances the seriousness of the subject matter with a more engaging delivery. After all, you can’t bore people into learning.
Ross Feingold is Head of Research at Caerus Consulting, a consultancy that advises clients on worldwide risk management. Admitted to practice law in New York and Washington, DC, he was previously an in-house counsel at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, and J.P. Morgan. Ross has lived in Asia for over twenty years—including in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei—and speaks fluent Mandarin.
Ben Hammond is the managing partner of the law firm Ashurst in Hong Kong. In this episode, he articulates his views on the city’s new Stablecoin Bill, which was gazetted on December 6, 2024, and had its first reading before the territory’s Legislative Council on December 18.
