Financial Firms Can’t Ignore the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

8月18日，纽约银行梅隆公司与违反“外国腐败实践法”（FCPA）的证券交易委员会定居。根据SEC的行政通知，BNY Mellon的资产管理部门的一名员工聘请了一名官员家庭的实习生，以确保当前和额外的业务。该银行未在结算中承认或否认内疚，将支付1480万美元的罚款。

Although the violation and settlement were fairly minor, the BNY Mellon case is notable because it was the first brought against a bank under the FCPA; also, the violation focused on hiring practices. The SEC action offers a glimpse into a new area of enforcement that financial firms can’t ignore.

SEC的行政申请中的员工电子邮件在BNY Mellon收费方面是明确的。根据这一点文档那“a boutique account manager wrote in a February 2010 e-mail concerning the internship request for Interns A and B that BNY Mellon was ‘not in a position to reject the request from a commercial point of view’ even though it was a ‘personal request’ from Official X. The employee stated: ‘by not allowing the internships to take place, we potentially jeopardize our mandate with [the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund].’”

其他电子邮件同样是坦率的。“我想要更多钱，”一个读。“我期待更多。。。。我们正在做[官方x]一个忙。“

虽然雇用任何家庭的实习生合法，但这样做是为了保持或扩大客户关系是一个FCPAviolation. The order shows that once the hires were made, BNY Mellon kept the sovereign fund’s business and won more.

FCPA自1977年以来一直存在;从历史上看，SEC使用它来追求个人和公司，以便磨削磨坊贿赂，如偿还外国官员，以批准许可或作为项目的一部分接受回扣。然而，对于金融公司来说，赌注更高，委员会正在仔细看看。

提交给监管机构的文件显示,《反海外腐败法》的调查re under way at every major bank, including Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and UBS. The FCPA has also come up as part of SEC examinations of private equity firms and large hedge fund managers.

“Financial services providers face unique corruption risks when seeking to win business in international markets, and we will continue to scrutinize industries that have not been vigilant about complying with the FCPA,” said Kara Brockmeyer, chief of the SEC Division of Enforcement’s FCPA unit, in a statement after the settlement with BNY Mellon was announced.

与内幕交易调查一样，司法部，司法部和联邦调查局都涉及在FCPA下的监测活动。具有设备齐全的合规部门的大银行在处理几个美国政府机构的监督方面具有优势。但对于私募股权和hedge fund firms那which tend to be smaller, understanding the FCPA’s compliance requirements calls for extra work, as well as disclosure to investors.

BNY Mellon案例强调了需要严格招聘控制和基于广泛的合规方法。据Mitchell Ettinger是一家位于曼德尔·埃特泰德，ARPS，Slate，Meagher＆Flom的米切尔·Ettinger的说法，金融公司必须批准整个操作。

收紧招聘实践并引入更严格的知识 - 您的客户政策是一个良好的起点，但只有那个在FCPA案件中拥有专业知识的Ettinger，并帮助了金融服务公司的合规性。对于金融参与者，以及专门的替代投资管理人员，招聘和资产饲养不会占据整个画面。

“招聘是执法的新角度”，纽约州董事长约翰罗林斯注释了会计和咨询公司McGladrey的财务调查和争议咨询实践。“通常，金融公司已被脱离FCPA调查，因为他们已经更多地通过腐败制度从A到B移动产品。这个角度将使金融公司重新思考他们的合规流程。“

Looking beyond internal controls, Ettinger says, investment managers will need to know the business model of foreign portfolio companies, securities exposures and other assets so they can address the compliance risks that could trigger an FCPA violation.

例如，他问道，实体是否使用第三方顾问？如果是这样，他们是如何选择的，审查和支付？如果业务涉及政府或国有实体，哪些控件就到位了？它是否在海关，税务或其他监管问题的背景下与外国政府代理商互动？

为他们，投资者必须寻求理解普通伙伴或投资经理正在制定的拨款。这意味着将FCPA相关的问题添加到尽职调查过程，并要求金融公司对他们如何参与任何投资来透明。

如果进行了FCPA调查，并不总是意味着存在违规行为。在对投资者的指导下，仲裁案表明法律中有异常。在任何调查中，Ettinger说，遏制是关键：“确定是否有持续违规行为的潜力，如果是，请毫不拖延地修复这种情况。”

The firm will need to determine if the investigation stems from a single bad actor or broader exposure to a corrupt foreign company or official. FCPA provisions allow investigators to examine past problems too, so financial managers must be ready to show when a potentially troublesome relationship began and ended.

Investigators can look at books and records, internal controls, business processes or instances of possible bribery under the FCPA. They can bring separate allegations in each of these areas, so determining the scope of an investigation is critical for firms and investors.

“任何FCPA调查中的主要问题是对外国官员或外国官员家庭成员的价值的规定，”Ettinger说。“调查人员将介绍提供价值的动机，在公司的书籍和记录中记录支出的方式以及内部控制的充分性以检测不当付款。”

Ettinger and McGladrey’s Rollins both advise caution and stress the importance of a compliance-focused culture. “In these investigations the commission is always looking for tone at the top, so if they come in on FCPA and FCPA isn’t on the radar for folks at the top of an organization, investigators are going to take note of that,” Rollins says.