Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines and regulations in financial services require professionals to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship with a customer. The procedures fit within the broader scope of anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorism financing (CTF) regulations.
The Group of States against Corruption, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body with its Headquarters in Strasbourg (France), was established, in 1999, as an enlarged Partial Agreement by 17 Council of Europe member States.
Integrity management consulting is an emerging sector of consultancy that advises individuals and corporations on how to apply the highest ethical standards to every aspect of their business. Integrity within a corporate set-up is a holistic approach that makes prudent and ethical decisions in finance and other areas, including operations, marketing, human resources and manufacturing. At the core of integrity management is the belief that companies have a strong interest and responsibility to act with integrity at all times.
The Philippines suffers from widespread corruption, which developed during the Spanish colonial period. According to GAN Integrity's Philippines Corruption Report updated May 2020, the Philippines suffers from many incidents of corruption and crime in many aspects of civic life and in various sectors. Such corruption risks are rampant throughout the state's judicial system, police service, public services, land administration, and natural resources. Examples of corruption in the Philippines include graft, bribery, favouritism, nepotism, impunity, embezzlement, extortion, racketeering, fraud, tax evasion, lack of transparency, lack of sufficient enforcement of laws and government policies, and consistent lack of support for human rights.
The nation of Botswana has been ranked as one of the least corrupt countries in Africa by many large, well-known international organizations. However, corruption is not eradicated, and can still be seen in a wide majority of different governmental sectors and in differing forms. To combat this corruption, Botswana has passed many legal acts and policies with the aim of stopping its growth.
Corruption in France describes the prevention and occurrence of corruption in France.
Corruption in Romania has decreased in recent years. In particular since 2014, Romania undertook a significant anti-corruption effort that included the investigation and prosecution of medium- and high-level political, judicial and administrative officials by the National Anticorruption Directorate. The National Anticorruption Directorate was established in 2002 by the Romanian government to investigate and prosecute medium and high-level corruption related offenses, using a model of organization inspired by similar structures in Norway, Belgium and Spain. Adrian Zuckerman, the US Ambassador in Romania, has stated in 2021 that "the rule of law has been strengthened in Romania". Since 2022, the effectiveness of the investigation and sanctioning of high-level corruption further improved, including by advancing on cases that had been pending for years for procedural reasons.
Corruption in Poland is below the world average but not insignificant. Within Poland, surveys of Polish citizens reveal that it is perceived to be a major problem.
Corruption in Sweden has been defined as "the abuse of power" by Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå). By receiving bribes, bribe takers abuse their position of power, which is consistent with how the National Anti-Corruption Unit of the Swedish Prosecution Authority specifies the term. Although bribes and improper rewards are central in the definition of corruption in Sweden, corruption in the sense of "abuse of power" can also manifest itself in other crimes such as misuse of office, embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust against a principal.
Corruption in the Netherlands in all major areas—judiciary, police, business, politics—as the country is considered one of the least corrupt within the European Union.
Corruption in the Czech Republic is considered to be widespread by a majority of the Czech public, according to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013.
In recent years, Montenegro has increased its efforts to implement preventive and legislative measures needed to curb corruption. For example, anti-bribery provisions in the Criminal Code, as well as laws on money laundering, conflict of interest, access to information, and political funding have all been strengthened, while awareness-raising activities and training of public officials in integrity standards have been intensified.
Corruption in Tunisia is widely regarded amongst Tunisians to be in the top five issues facing the country today. Since the end of colonial rule, Tunisia has been marked by corrupt and authoritarian leaders. After the revolution of 2011 came numerous committees to tackle this issue. The Investigative Committee for Acts of Corruption and Bribery Committed Under the Former President was one such committee, however it failed to deal with the more widespread issues of corruption. State-owned companies and companies owned by influential families continue to enjoy a privileged position, while those at the bottom struggle with everyday necessities.
Corruption in Georgia had been an issue in the post-Soviet decades. Before the 2003 Rose Revolution, according to Foreign Policy, Georgia was among the most corrupt nations in Eurasia. The level of corruption abated dramatically, however, after the revolution. In 2010, Transparency International (TI) said that Georgia was "the best corruption-buster in the world." While low-level corruption had earlier been largely eliminated, Transparency International Georgia since 2020 has also documented dozens of cases of high-level corruption that remain to be prosecuted.
An integrity pact is a multi-party agreement by a public body seeking to procure goods and services of significant value. As a tool for preventing corruption in public contracting, companies interested in bidding to supply the goods and services give a third party organisation, such as a civil society organisation, a role in monitoring compliance with the pact.
Transparency Serbia is a non-profit organization based in Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded in 2002 and granted the status of "national chapter in formation" by the Transparency International (TI) movement. Over the next four years, Transparency Serbia concentrated its efforts on advocating for the adoption and improvement of anti-corruption legislation through the use of promotional campaigns, draft amendments, comparative legal analysis of legislation. Transparency Serbia further worked to raise public awareness of anti-corruption legislation and identify implementation gaps where legislation was not being enforced. The priorities of work in that period were advocating for the adoption of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance (2004), the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest (2004), full implementation of the Law on Financing of Political Parties (2003) and the Law on Public Procurement (2002), as well as the adoption of the National Anti-corruption Strategy (2005) and the accompanying action plan (2006).
Corruption in Azerbaijan is considered high and occurs at all levels of government. In Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranked 180 countries from those perceived to be least corrupt to those perceived to be very corrupt, Azerbaijan was ranked 128, compared to 45 for its northwestern neighbor Georgia and 58 for its western neighbor Armenia. In the Azerbaijani laundromat money-laundering scheme, $2.9 billion was paid to foreign politicians and Azerbaijani elites by companies linked to Azerbaijani ruler Ilham Aliyev, government ministries, and the International Bank of Azerbaijan between 2012 and 2014. Azerbaijan is a member of Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) and OECD's Anti-Corruption Network.
Anti-corruption comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive measures is sometimes drawn. In such framework, investigative authorities and their attempts to unveil corrupt practices would be considered reactive, while education on the negative impact of corruption, or firm-internal compliance programs are classified as the former.
The Basel Institute on Governance is an independent, international non-profit organisation dedicated to preventing and combating corruption and other financial crimes and to strengthening governance around the world. The organisation was established in Basel, Switzerland in 2003 by Professor Mark Pieth.
Maritime anti-corruption initiatives have emerged in the last decades as a response to the growing threat of transnational corruption in the maritime domain, specifically in the shipping industry which is responsible for around 90% of world trade. In the past, paying bribes at ports to pass through customs was perceived as normal behavior, but such activities resulting in higher operational costs lead to increasingly stricter national and international anti-corruption regulations being put in place.
