Banks ignore corruption risks: report

Banks and insurers know the risk of corruption, especially in the form of bribery or conflict of interest but not much is done to prevent this from occurring. Corruption risks are being overlooked within the organisation, the directors and employees. This was shown through a research performed by The Dutch Bank (DNB). To support these financial intuitions, the DNB has published a list of measures that can help prevent such incidents from arising and to help financial undertakers in the battle against corruption. This list was published after the research results showed that the companies do not take sufficient account of the risk that is involved in doing business with third parties, such as intermediaries and agents. “Even though the senior management of the financial institutions are often active in preventing corruption, there is an insufficient awareness amongst employees that the prevention of corruption is important, not only because it is stated in the law. This was stated by one of the supervisors. Once the institution acknowledges the risk of corruption, they can take the appropriate measures as stipulated by the DNB. Measures could involve the implementation of sound operating procedures, or the institution can create a more corporate organization in which corruption is not tolerated. This could be done for instance by displaying prompt message boards with an anti-corruption campaign or they could write a paragraph in their contracts regarding third party translations concerning any form of corruption followed by the measures taken once such practices comes to light.