Dina-Perla Portnaar

When I type “Chief Spiritual Officer” in the search bar of LinkedIn, I get 65 hits. Some findings do not even match. All Chief Spiritual Officers come from the US and just one comes from Switserland. I find the results shockingly low and disappointing, because every organization needs a Chief Spiritual Officer to get through all the transitions and to stay future-proof. As long as organizations – and especially the corporate world – laugh about spirituality, do not want to transcend blind greed and do not want to approach mission and vision from a standpoint of soulfulness, we run great risks as a society. As long as we shake off spirituality as whoo-whoo, as long as we only mistakenly link spirituality again and again to religion, ideology or theology, as a society we run great risks.
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The BIS’s Financial Stability Institute (FSI) and the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) convened the fourth biennial conference on global standard-setting bodies (SSBs) and innovative financial inclusion on 25-26 October 2018 in Basel, Switzerland. The conference came on the heels of the launching at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Annual Meetings of the Bali Fintech Agenda – a 12-element blueprint for harnessing fintech’s opportunities, including for financial inclusion and financial sector development, while mitigating emerging risks to vulnerable retail customers and to the integrity and stability of the global financial system.
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The 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code, published by the Financial Reporting Council, is shorter and sharper than its predecessor and emphasises the importance of the way in which boards and companies apply the spirit of the Code Principles. Whilst reasserting the importance of risk management and risk reporting, it puts the relationships between companies, shareholders and stakeholders at the heart of long-term sustainable growth in the UK economy.
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The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation to propose extending the scope of application of the existing Joint Committee (JC) Guidelines on complaints-handling to the new institutions established under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2) and the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD). The proposal, which does not envisage any changes to the substance of the existing Guidelines, will ensure that an identical set of requirements for complaints-handling continues to apply to all financial institutions across the banking, investment and insurance sectors. The extension of the scope will provide consumers with the same level of protection, irrespective of which regulated product or service they are purchasing and which regulated institution they are purchasing it from. The consultation runs until 27 May 2018.
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Julia Hoggett, the new Director of Market Oversight at the FCA, shares in her speech several of her observations, regarding both MAR; the relatively newly minted Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and more broadly the overall ‘market abuse regime’. Her aim is to help frame not just the FCA’s approach, but how FCA hope the industry is thinking about both MAR and the regime as a whole.
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The Financial Stability Board (FSB) today published a consultation document on Proposed governance arrangements for the unique transaction identifier (UTI). The consultation sets out proposals for the governance arrangements for a global UTI, as a key harmonised identifier designed to facilitate effective aggregation of transaction reports about over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets.
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by Brendan Sinnott and Evert-Jan Lammers

The last day’s seminar – entitled “Citizen participation and the risks of corruption” – was mainly to give space to two new distinguished TI founders’ new books on Corruption. Frank Vogl introduced his, entitled “Waging War of Corruption”, where he outlined the evil effects of corruption – mainly to dispel the myth of victimless corruption. He illustrates this with facts about income inequalities eg the Walmart USA CEO who earned 1100 times the average wage of a Walmart shop-floor employee. Vogl writes about victims worldwide – not just in the DRC but elsewhere in Africa, in Nigeria and Russia and mentions the scourge of sexploitation – a subject rarely mentioned or highlighted. 
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by Brendan Sinnott and Evert-Jan Lammers

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. What makes this 17th International Anti-Corruption Conference different from all previous ones? Take the following case. You will see how easy it is to fool the world around you. Continue reading…

by Brendan Sinnott and Evert-Jan Lammers

Among the interesting events was a discussion on Overcoming the Shadow Economy, mostly dealing with offshore tax havens. On the speakers, Nick Shaxson, is the author of a book on Tax Havens, called “Treasure Islands”, which quantifies the sums squirreled away in these islands, many of them in the Caribbean. Bodies, such as the OECD, have issued detailed reports on this topic and the Panama Papers news has added fuel to the fire of indignation over this practice. A recent resolution of the G20 called for a public register of Beneficial Owners in each of these havens. The sums are impressive – some $3 trillion according to some projections. A political solution would be the most efficient. Continue reading…

by Frank van den Nieuwenhuijzen

During the closing dinner of the annual meeting of the Risk and Compliance Platform Europe, Professor Ronald Jeurissen and Professor Sharon Oded debated moral muteness and integrity deafness. Professor Jeurissen stressed the importance of breaking through moral muteness among employees. Professor Oded agreed, but added that integrity deafness within an organisation is at least equally important to address.
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