Client area

Compliance services

“Compliance helps companies to avoid, control and act in time to prevent legal, criminal and reputational consequences.”

Corporate compliance refers to the practice of ensuring that a company complies with internal and external laws and regulations, ethical standards and established policies. This involves implementing programmes and processes to prevent and detect misconduct such as corruption, fraud, money laundering, breaches of personal data protection, employment or environmental violations, among others. The main objective of compliance is to comply with the various regulatory frameworks and to promote transparency, integrity and accountability within the organisation, as well as to mitigate the risk of legal sanctions, reputational damage and financial harm.

Criminal prevention

A criminal compliance management system covers a wide range of activities, from the implementation of internal policies and procedures to prevent crime to carrying out audits and risk assessments. These services also include training staff on legal and ethical issues, as well as setting up reporting programmes to foster a culture of integrity within the organisation.

What is criminal compliance?

Criminal compliance is a set of measures and procedures a company must adopt to prevent and detect possible criminal-liability offences within its organisation. This proactive approach seeks to ensure that the company complies with all relevant laws and regulations, thereby avoiding legal sanctions and reputational damage. Common criminal compliance practices include implementing codes of ethics, carrying out internal audits, training employees on legal and ethical issues, and appointing a compliance officer.

Is it necessary to have a compliance programme?

For directors, adopting a crime-prevention programme that meets the requirements of the Criminal Code and other applicable rules is not an option but an obligation that, although not derived directly from the Law or the articles of association, is nonetheless unavoidable in light of the circumstances and their duty of diligence. Directors do, however, have a degree of discretion in determining its content.

Article 31 of the Criminal Code: Assigns to the management body the adoption and implementation of organisational and management models that include suitable supervision and control measures.

Article 225 of the Spanish Companies Act: General duty of diligence. 1. Directors must perform their duties and comply with the obligations imposed by law and the articles of association with the diligence of a reasonable businessperson, taking into account the nature of the role and the functions assigned to each of them.

Article 226 of the Spanish Companies Act: 1. With regard to strategic and business decisions subject to business judgement, the standard of diligence of a reasonable businessperson is deemed met when the director has acted in good faith, with no personal interest in the matter being decided, with sufficient information and following an appropriate decision-making procedure.

Article 529 ter of the Spanish Companies Act: Sets out the powers of the management body that cannot be delegated, expressly including: “b) The determination of the risk control and management policy, including tax risks, and the supervision of internal information and control systems.”

Where is criminal compliance regulated in Spain?

Criminal compliance is mainly regulated by the laws and specific regulations of each country. In Spain, for example, it is mainly regulated by the Criminal Code, as well as by the Organic Law on the Criminal Liability of Legal Entities. These rules set out the requirements and obligations companies must meet to prevent the commission of offences in the course of their business, as well as the criminal risk arising from non-compliance. There are also international standards, such as UNE 19601, ISO 37001 or ISO 19600, which provide guidelines for implementing compliance management systems globally.

Effectiveness of Compliance models

Implementing criminal compliance models ensures the quality and prosperity of the company. Through our Compliance prevention plan we can:

  • Entrust the supervision and operation of the Model to a body with autonomous powers of initiative and control (Compliance Body).
  • Identify the activities in whose context the offences to be prevented may be committed.
  • Establish protocols or procedures that set out how the legal entity forms its will, makes decisions and carries them out in those areas.
  • Have adequate financial resources in place.
  • Set up a whistleblowing channel, communication channel (including an internal information system) or ethics hotline —i.e. the possibility of reporting potential risks and breaches to the body responsible for overseeing the operation and observance of the prevention model.
  • Establish a disciplinary system that adequately sanctions any breach of the measures laid down by the model. The model and any amendments to it must be reviewed periodically.
  • Carry out a periodic review of the model.
To ensure the effectiveness of Compliance models, it is important not only to put these systems in place, but also to train all members of the organisation so that they can detect and respond appropriately in each case. This training can also be subsidised through the Spanish State Foundation for Training in Employment (Fundae).
Compliance training

Why choose us?

Lawyers specialised in Compliance

Sandra Soler

PARTNER

Sandra’s professional work focuses on providing Compliance advice to a wide range of entities, both public and private, across various jurisdictions and sectors. Her work centres on the implementation and monitoring of crime-prevention models, anti-money-laundering systems, the deployment of internal information systems, equality plans and more, as well as the monitoring and auditing of such systems.

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Our Compliance services

  • Anti-Money-Laundering Prevention
  • Data protection and privacy
  • ISO 37301 implementation (compliance management systems)
  • Ethics or Whistleblowing Channel
  • Internal investigations
  • Compliance expert reports
  • Compliance audit reviews
  • Internal policies
    • Codes of conduct
    • Conflict of interest policy
    • Trade secrets policy

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