Compliance

Compliance increasingly gains in importance as superordinate concept for risk management, damage and liability prevention in companies of all sizes. As we understand it, based upon the terminology of the German Corporate Governance Codex, compliance means optimizing operating processes in all areas of a company prone to risks. The objective is to ensure that statutory provisions of different legal disciplines, internal requirements and, if applicable, non-codified ethical principles are observed in all tasks performed by the company.

The financial service sector holds a special position with regard to compliance. In no other sector, so many compliance aspects are already explicitly governed by supervisory specifications of the legislature and administrative practice. However, the extent of regulation increases in other sectors as well. A compliance management system may create an effective framework for preventing risks in companies. In many respects this leads to increased legal security: for managers who personally have to face large fines in case of compliance violations caused by their staff, for employees but also for business partners. Many large enterprises and companies already demand a functioning compliance structure from their suppliers.

SCHLATTER provides assistance with three compliance experts: Dr. Duncker, Dr. Hofstätter and Dr. Lange. Our clients in the field of compliance are financial service providers as well as large and medium-sized companies in other economic sectors. We develop risk management systems for these clients and review existing systems regarding potential vulnerabilities. For this purpose we approach our clients’ companies as “learners” in order to understand the existing processes and operational procedures with the help from our clients’ employees. We then review these processes for potential vulnerabilities and risks. The implementation of a risk management system starts where the largest risk potential has been localized. Starting from there, the risk management system is expanded to all processes of the company. This process which usually extends over a longer period of time is conducted in constant interaction with the management and is accompanied by employee training and corresponding operating instructions.

We assist our clients in case of internal or regulatory enquiries regarding potential compliance violations. Furthermore, we assist in-house compliance representatives - who are often in charge of further tasks in addition to compliance topics - as legal advisers and contact persons.