Corporate compliance programs aim to make sure a company obeys laws and regulations. One problem with compliance — companies can sometimes make more breaking the rules than following them. And they are complicated. So, they mount compliance programs for show and look the other way. That’s where whistleblowers come in. Or go out. Some internal reporting programs work against whistleblowers, so insiders choose to report wrongdoing to a government agency or the press.

And when they do, companies are sometimes forced to assess the efficacy of their compliance programs.  At Danske Bank, the cost of doing so may lead to layoffs. Bank employees are being offered buy-outs, with managers of the international bank citing rising compliance costs. From Bloomberg.

 Danske Bank A/S is offering 2,000 of its employees in Denmark the option of stepping down as the cost of adapting to a world with stricter regulations and negative interest rates just keeps growing…

Danske has acknowledged its costs are still rising, following a vast Estonian dirty-money scandal. In an interview in Stockholm, the chief executive of Danske in Sweden, Johanna Norberg, said “the peak” level of investment to meet anti-money laundering requirements has “not yet been reached.”
Continue Reading Why not beef up corporate compliance before you get caught?