Under Sanctions and Post-Sanctions’ Russia and the state of compliance enforcement conference, Oct 27, 2014, Moscow

Agenda Compliance seminar (ENG) 22

Under Sanctions and Post-Sanctions’ Russia and the state of compliance enforcement

October 27 Conference at the Library Hall, Russian Chamber of Commerce, Ilyinka 6

The Third Phase of the International project “Business Ethics &Compliance”

Project participants: Corporate Governance Dept. of the Financial University under the Russian government, Center for Business Ethics & Compliance (CBEC), Subcommittee on Corporate Governance and Management of the Committee on Industrial Development and Department of Entrepreneurship & Services of the Chamber of Commerce of the Russian Federation.

WHY ATTEND

By participating you will be joining your colleagues from other businesses and compliance experts who have examined potential impact on the attained state of anti-corruption compliance that business have already paid for to implement. While attending you could become part of the process to ensure that the reached state of compliance stays high and protect your company once the sanctions are lifted.

CONFERENCE OBJECTIVE

The Conference organizers intend to continue exploring the topic of anti-corruption compliance and ongoing sanctions, identify the steps companies need to take during the slump of commercial activities, demonstrate their commitment to doing business in Russia in line with the international and Russian legislature on compliance program implementation. After having a fruitful discussion and exchange at the event, the organizers plan to jointly with business representatives and compliance experts develop a set of goals to be addressed at the following conference held under the Financial University and the Russian Chamber of Commerce. The outcome of this conference should result in a series of practical recommendations from business, success stories and best practices shared and the framework of potential collaboration with compliance specialists.

Conference participants: Investors, business partners, company owners who have been very successful doing business in Russia. What is their secret and how can their success be translated onto a bigger group of Russian companies and businessmen? How can their resilience and commitment to work in Russia help them stay positive during the sanctions? What are the best practices to apply for companies that endure the burden of sanctions?

Some reps from the State Duma, security heads and Scandinavian partners who help their Russian partners build robust compliance systems will take part in this conference. The objective of this event is to review best practice from leading business to further replicate via training courses for young students of MBA programs at the Financial University under the Russian government and overall activities in anti-corruption area to promote higher standards of business that are now required by the Russian law. The test of the compliance systems developed and implemented in Russia starts now when companies learn to operate in sanctions’ business environment. Are there new lessons learned that could be shared with the conference participants?

Summary of the two previous stages:

1. Educational stage March 26-27 International conference of the applied science “Harmonization of educational and scientific activities as a strategic direction for higher education institutions’ development” was held at the Financial University where Business Ethics & Compliance Section pursued the topic of compliance in banking industry and summed up the success stories from business, namely, TNK-BP and others. Most of show cases will serve as practical tools to teach students. Also a new course on compliance at the Financial University and update on the project was presented by A. Yakorev, Director of CBEC.
2. Expert community stage May 20 within the framework of the X International applied science conference “CSR and business ethics” which was held at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and was organized by the project participants, the actual section on business ethics and compliance brought together many experts in the field of ethics, compliance, legal function, compliance function in banking etc. and produced a very rich event whose lessons will be used in the project to go forward.
3. EU/Scandinavian & Russian business communities’ leaders meet with expert and academic community to discuss Russia’s commitment to promote compliance and more transparent business conditions during sanctions. Main items to be discussed:

• Compliance in Russia has been built around international and Russian laws and standards. It is crucial to preserve and promote them even during sanctions, otherwise we may face their deterioration;
• When all is put on hold, including compliance activities, since compliance training budgets are slashed, it is imperative to set up an interim oversight platform to maintain achieved compliance standards and monitor the ongoing activities which should be aligned with business interests of the process stakeholders;
• Maintaining existing networks and communication on anti-corruption compliance topics are key because of potential worsening of the attained standards during sanctions. Keeping Russian partners, MNCs with their supply chain engaged is important;
• Preparing to return to regular activities in Post-Sanctions scenario and keeping existing standards high not to lose ground
  The Conference organizers see the outcome of this event as a set of practical steps and recommendations proposed by its participants which could be used and incorporated in the following event whose format and profile will be determined by its impact and outreach.